A look at Microsoft's love for Linux
New Love
Open Source means more than just giving out a few pieces of code to an Open Source project; maddog explains.
For months, the technical news media has been telling us how much Microsoft is "Open." They point to announcements from Microsoft about how they are cooperating with The Linux Foundation on putting code into the Linux kernel that will allow Linux hypervisors to support Microsoft virtual environments better. They point to the number of patches they have contributed to the Linux kernel and how they work with Canonical to put "Linux" functionality on top of Windows 10.
Companies that were almost crushed by Microsoft in the early days are now partnering with the Redmond giant. People whom I have known for years and are otherwise well respected in the "Open Source" community take these crumbs of code and crow that Microsoft has seen the light.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Microsoft only has one partner: Microsoft. And nothing demonstrates this more than Microsoft's attempts to restrict the browser for Windows 10 to Edge, because Edge will work better with Windows 10 and be integrated better with Cortana, and Edge will integrate better with the rest of Windows 10 applications, or so they say. This stinks of the browser wars of years ago, spawned by Internet Explorer.
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