Το 2001 ο τότε CEO της Microsoft Steve Ballmer ανέφερε το περίφημο: “Linux is a cancer.” Τα επόμενα χρόνια η company attacked Linux as if it were a real cancer.
To remind attacks copyright SCO on Linux to even claim that Linux infringed its patents Microsoft in endless FUD attacks.
Over the years and while Linux was the number one enemy of Microsoft we reached the "love" of the new CEO of the company Satya Nadella.
Let's start at the beginning: Nadella told Wired that she's not interested in old-fashioned battles, especially when, whether she likes it or not, Linux has become a vital part of today's business technology. "Unless you do something new", Reported, you will not survive. ”
There is nothing new about Linux, at least not as Nadella means. But what does the CEO of Microsoft want to say?
To understand Nadella's vision we must always remember "Follow the money."
At the time of the selection of the new CEO, Microsoft's fortunes were no longer played in desktops and office software. The program Azure cloud launched in February 2010 and Office 365 launched in June 2010 had requirements.
Linux is also used even in the Azure cloud by large and small businesses.
Ταυτόχρονα, η Microsoft γνωρίζει πολύ καλά ότι το Azure είναι το μόνο καθαρά ιδιόκτητο cloud, ενώ όλος ο ανταγωνισμός (Amazon Web Services, Google Compute, OpenStack etc. etc) – all run on Linux and offer Linux server services. If Microsoft had stuck to Steve Ballmer's path, it wouldn't have stood a chance.
Microsoft loves Linux because it makes them money.
The company will probably never release products like Office for Linux (although there is now a possibility through one interfaceweb and Office 365) and will never provide APIs that are made for Windows only. None of these actions would have any tangible benefit to the company.
But it can take.
Developers write a few lines of code as a contribution to the open source platform is not comparable to what Microsoft is gaining.
Of course the few lines of code I mention above are not few. Until 2011, Microsoft had become the fifth largest code contributor in the Linux kernel.
Why
To be sure that Linux could work with Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization. And Hyper-V is at the heart of Azure.
Bringing Microsoft executives into Linux's top management Foundation was the next step. The a senior executive was added to an already split board, and so today we have Microsoft veterans speaking on behalf of the Foundation. Only Microsoft knows the goal, and it will probably never be announced.
As you can see, Microsoft's love for Linux and open source is not so altruistic.
From 2014 onwards, people are starting to abandon the old computing standards for cloud services. Microsoft already had a position, but to continue to hold it it would have to play well with everyone else. Yes, even with Linux.
