Slashdot: Will Linux Innovation Be Driven By Microsoft?

Will Linux Innovation Be Driven By Microsoft?
Published on September 17, 2017 at 01:18AM
Adobe’s VP of Mobile (and a former intellectual property lawyer) sees “a very possible future where Microsoft doesn’t merely accept a peaceful coexistence with Linux, but instead enthusiastically embraces it as a key to its future,” noting Microsoft’s many Linux kernel developers and arguing it’s already innovating around Linux — especially in the cloud. An anonymous reader quotes InfoWorld:
Even seemingly pedestrian work — like making Docker containers work for Windows, not merely Linux — is a big deal for enterprises that don’t want open source politics infesting their IT. Or how about Hyper-V containers, which marry the high density of containers to the isolation of traditional VMs? That’s a really big deal…

Microsoft has started hiring Linux kernel developers like Matthew Wilcox, Paul Shilovsky, and (in mid-2016) Stephen Hemminger… Microsoft now employs 12 Linux kernel contributors. As for what these engineers are doing, Linux kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman says, “Microsoft now has developers contributing to various core areas of the kernel (memory management, core data structures, networking infrastructure), the CIFS filesystem, and of course many contributions to make Linux work better on its Hyper-V systems.” In sum, the Linux Foundation’s Jim Zemlin declares, “It is accurate to say they are a core contributor,” with the likelihood that Hemminger’s and others’ contributions will move Microsoft out of the kernel contribution basement into the upper echelons.
The article concludes that “Pigs, in other words, do fly. Microsoft, while maintaining its commitment to Windows, has made the necessary steps to not merely run on Linux but to help shape the future of Linux.”