Windows Might Go Open Source
Azure CTO says Redmond has already considered the unthinkable.
According to a report in Ars Technica and other sources, Microsoft technical fellow and Azure CTO Mark Russinovich told an audience at the ChefConf conference in Santa Clara, California, it is “definitely possible” that Redmond could open source Windows someday. The question comes on the heel of recent announcements about Microsoft open-sourcing the code for various components of the .NET infrastructure. Russinovich adds it is a “new Microsoft,” but also admits the complexity of the Windows codebase might not lend itself to open development in the way it is done with Linux and BSD.
A Microsoft technical fellow announcing the possibility of an open source Windows is really quite astonishing, considering Microsoft’s stormy history with the open source movement. Still, one thing is certain: Microsoft is in business to make money, and they wouldn’t take such a step unless they had a clear idea of how they would benefit. The financial benefits of giving away a product that is currently providing billions of dollars in revenue are currently unclear, so don’t count on Windows turning up at GitHub anytime soon.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.