http://www.dwheeler.com/blog/2011/07...t-linux-author
... and the 5th largest corporate contributor.
David Wheeler remarks:
... and the 5th largest corporate contributor.
David Wheeler remarks:
This work by Microsoft was to clean up the “Microsoft Hyper-V (HV) driver” so that the Microsoft driver would be included in the mainline Linux kernel. Microsoft originally submitted this set of code changes back in July 2009, but there were a lot of problems with it, and the Linux kernel developers insisted that it be fixed. The Linux community had a long list of issues with Microsoft’s code, but the good news is that Microsoft worked to improve the quality of its code so that it could be accepted into the Linux kernel. Other developers helped Microsoft get their code up to par, too. ( Steve Friedl has some comments about its early technical issues.) AThere’s something rather amusing about watching Microsoft (a company that focuses on software development) being forced by the Linux community to improve the quality of Microsoft’s code. Anyone who thinks that FLOSS projects (which typically use widespread public peer review) always produce lower quality software than proprietary vendors just isn’t watching the real world (see my survey paper of quantitative FLOSS studies if you want more on that point). Peer review often exposes problems, so that they can be fixed, and that is what happened here.
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Microsoft did not do this for the sheer thrill of it. Getting code into the mainline Linux kernel release, instead of just existing as a separate patch, is vitally important for an organization if they want people to use their software (if it needs to be part of the Linux kernel, as this did).
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This doesn’t mean that Microsoft is suddenly releasing all its programs as free/libre/open source software (FLOSS). Far from it. It is obvious to me that Microsoft is contributing this code for the same reason many companies contribute to the Linux kernel and other FLOSS software projects: Money.
I think it is clear that Microsoft hopes that these changes to Linux will help Microsoft sell more Windows licenses. These changes enable Linux to run much better (e.g., more efficiently) on top of Microsoft Windows’ hypervisor (Hyper-V). Without them, people who want to run Linux on top of a hypervisor are much more likely to use products other than Microsoft’s.
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Microsoft did not do this for the sheer thrill of it. Getting code into the mainline Linux kernel release, instead of just existing as a separate patch, is vitally important for an organization if they want people to use their software (if it needs to be part of the Linux kernel, as this did).
...
This doesn’t mean that Microsoft is suddenly releasing all its programs as free/libre/open source software (FLOSS). Far from it. It is obvious to me that Microsoft is contributing this code for the same reason many companies contribute to the Linux kernel and other FLOSS software projects: Money.
I think it is clear that Microsoft hopes that these changes to Linux will help Microsoft sell more Windows licenses. These changes enable Linux to run much better (e.g., more efficiently) on top of Microsoft Windows’ hypervisor (Hyper-V). Without them, people who want to run Linux on top of a hypervisor are much more likely to use products other than Microsoft’s.
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