Microsoft isn't just using open source, it's reportedly now using the Git version control system to build Windows. The development prototype of the proprietary software now depends on open source to create the Windows operating system! Who would have thought that?
You may not have noticed it, but 2013, Microsoft announced the roadmap to add Git support to Visual Studio's development toolkit suite and Team Foundation application management technologies.
Later that same year, Microsoft's technical team and Team Foundation chief Brian Harry announced that Microsoft will now support Git as a source-code-control platform.
The idea did not like everyone in Microsoft, but as he said Brian Harry then on his blog, "the more we looked at it, the more it seemed right."
In the years gone by, Microsoft made its own significant open-source contributions to Git. 2017 came to Microsoft Git Virtual File System (GVFS) with open resources, and with permission MIT. The GVFS allowed Microsoft product groups to upgrade their Git client to access huge open source repos.
Since then, Microsoft has begun to transfer all Windows code to Git and GVFS. The project seems to have been implemented to a great extent and Microsoft seems to enjoy the benefits of the open source concept with its creation the largest Git repo on the planet.
Brian Harry says: "Over the last 3 months, we have largely completed the development of Git / GVFS in the Microsoft Windows team. It was not a small job.
The base of the Windows code is about 3.5M files and, when connected to a Git repo, results in a repo of up to 300GB. ”
These were just the files.
“Η ομάδα των Windows είναι περίπου 4.000 μηχανικοί και το μηχανολογικό σύστημα παράγει 1.760 ημερήσια “lab builds” σε 440 branches εκτός από τα χιλιάδες validation builds pull requests. "
Harry admitted that this was a terrifying experience:
"The first and biggest leap happened on March 22 when we started with the team of 2.000 Windows OneCore engineers. These 2.000 engineers worked at Source Depot on Friday, went home over the weekend and returned Monday morning to work at Git. The members of the group held their breath all weekend, and prayed that no problems would arise on Monday. "
"To my great surprise, it went very well and the engineers were productive from day one."
Today, almost all Windows developers are working on Git. In the coming months, the latest 500 developers will be moved to the Git platform.
Let's look at some numbers:
There are over 250.000 Git commits in the repo history, the last 4 months.
8,421 pushes the day (on average)
2.500 pull requests, with 6.600 reviewers per business day (on average)
4.352 active topics
1,760 official builds the day
Microsoft continues to coordinate GVFS for remote use.
Impressed? Microsoft is definitely using GVFS for this. GVFS is an open source project and you can try it. All you need to do is download and install it. Then you can create one account Visual Studio Team Services with a Git repo and you're good to go. Other Git programs include Atlassian SourceTree and Git Tower.
Ironically, there is currently no Linux Git client that supports GVFS. Saeed Noursalehi, a Microsoft developer, wrote on the GVFS bug list: “Yes, we definitely want to support Mac and Linux, and we're looking for people with experience with file systems for those. platforms. "
The creator of Linux and Git, Linus Torvalds once said:
"If Microsoft ever makes applications for Linux, that means I won."
I think that since Microsoft uses Git to develop Windows, the event can be seen as a win.
