Let me first tell you about the Open Source strategy of Microsoft. It might sound absurd but its true that Microsoft has an Open Source strategy Labs for their Consumers. The main cause of the formation of such a Lab was to make sure that their customers, who are struggling with running Open-Source software’s along with the Microsoft Software’s, could find solutions. Now, what Microsoft has really done that is making this story.
Microsoft has unleashed 20,000 lines of Linux Code to the Linux Kernel Community and to my surprise under the GNU General Public License V2 (notably the most preferred license by the Linux Community). This is indeed the first time that they have ever released their own code under GPL.
What will the code do?
The code includes three Linux Drivers necessary to enhance the performance of the Linux Operating System when virtualized on Microsoft’s Hyper-V Server 2008 virtualization software.
Inspite of over 1000 developers for the open Source Community, why is it that Microsoft thought of entering the Open Source Arena now? Customer Demand is what has made the difference.
Now, why would Microsoft do something like this when the open Source developers are their major rivals in the current scenario?
In my opinion, this is a survival strategy for Microsoft. Microsoft has realized that a considerable portion of its consumers are going to be running both Linux and Windows side by side and so under such circumstances, the Hyper-V virtualization software along with the Microsoft-Linux Drivers would help in inter portability between the 2 OS’s. This would not only help Microsoft enter the Linux tree but also encourage users who found using Linux, a little difficult and would want to use both , Linux and Windows on the same machines.
According to Sam Ramji, who runs the Open Source Software Lab for Microsoft and is the company’s director of open source technology strategy “”As open source is adopted on a range of platforms we need to understand it really clearly to make ourselves one of the best platforms to adopt it on” clearly stating that Microsoft wants to become a platform Linux users could turn to. In short, they are trying to put Linux in some corner of the industry by making Linux integration software’s so that people doesn’t stop using Windows.
Future Reserach
They have other areas in mind as well apart from the virtualization of Linux on Windows. This includes drivers for Mouse, Video Graphics, etc. They are also attempting to make the PHP open source dynamic language run fast under Windows and work well with Microsoft SQL Server.
Looks like, Microsoft has all figured it out and this smart step on part of Microsoft would definitely take them a long way ahead. Beware Linux!
