In 2001, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer described Linux as “… the cancer that spreads to everything it touches.” This weekteam, in 2016, Microsoft announced that it joined the Linux Foundation as a platinum member.
The news should not come as a surprise as we have recently seen moves from Microsoft that indicate that the company has come to see Linux as platform that can work with Windows, but also that it has plans to open source several of its software. 
Το 2012 η εταιρεία ήταν ένας από τους 20 κορυφαίους contributors του Linux Kernel, αντιπροσωπεύοντας το 1% του συνόλου του πηγαίου κώδικα. Το 2014, ανοίγει το λογισμικό το .NET Core Framework και το επόμενο έτος έκανε το ίδιο με το Visual Studio Code. He has also helped develop several high-profile open source projects such as Hadoop and Samba. And let's mention, of course, that earlier this year he worked with Canonical to port Bash to Windows.
According to Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, joining Microsoft as a member of the Linux Foundation means "working better with the open source community to deliver transformative mobile and cloud experiences to more people."
But there is another basic detail in the news of Microsoft's inclusion in the Linux Foundation. The company as a platinum member will have to pay an annual subscription that reaches 500.000 dollars. It is enough money to finance the development, management and visibility of the Linux Foundation. Other platinum members are Cisco, Fujitsu, HPE, Huawei, IBM, Intel NEC, Oracle, Qualcomm, and Samsung.
Let's mention that the above news is not such an altruistic act on the part of Microsoft, which seems to have realized that Linux development is in the company's interest, especially if you think of Microsoft Azure.
