What? o_O
Press release of Microsoft of July 20.
REDMOND, Wash., July 20, 2009 — Today, in a break from the ordinary, Microsoft released 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux community. The code, which includes three Linux device drivers, has been submitted to the Linux kernel community for inclusion in the Linux tree. The drivers will be available to the Linux community and customers alike, and will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V or Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.
So what exactly is happening? Is hell freezing over? Is Chuck Norris no longer awesome? Calm down. The answer to all of this is no.
Microsoft apparently has seen issues when virtualizing Linux on their Windows Server systems that have the Hyper-V feature, a technology that enables Windows to run multiple virtual machines on one computer. In order to smooth the operation of Linux systems on Hyper-V, Microsoft is giving these kernel drivers to the community for inclusion into the Linux Kernel.
Ultimately, it is up to the distributions to include it or not. Currently the code is submitted to the people of govern the Kernel.
Linus Torvalds, the maker of Linux, comments:
“Oh, I’m a big believer in “technology over politics”. I don’t care who it comes from, as long as there are solid reasons for the code, and as long as we don’t have to worry about licensing etc issues.
In fact, to some degree, I’d be more likely to include it because it’s from a new member of the community rather than less (again, I’d like to point out that drivers are special. They don’t impact other things, so they get merged much more easily than some core changes).
I may make jokes about Microsoft at times, but at the same time, I think the Microsoft hatred is a disease. I believe in open development, and that very much involves not just making the source open, but also not shutting other people and companies out.
There are ‘extremists’ in the free software world, but that’s one major reason why I don’t call what I do ‘free software’ any more. I don’t want to be associated with the people for whom it’s about exclusion and hatred.”
So there you have it. If Microsoft ends up in open source, you gotta admit that there’s something to it – if you don’t use this kind of software.
It is a very interesting move of them. Let’s see where this one is headed.
LinuxMag: Microsoft patches Linux; Linus responds
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