Microsoft Contributes Thousands of Lines of Driver Code to Linux Community

Posted 07/21/2009 at 8:00am | by Paul Lilly

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Even Microsoft recognized its latest move as "a break from the ordinary," which certainly describes the largely closed-source company coughing up 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux community. But settle down, Windows isn't going open-source.

Instead, the code includes three Linux device drivers, which have been submitted to the Linux kernel community for inclusion in the LInux tree. Microsoft says the driver code will enhance the performance of Linux when virtualized on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V or Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.

"We are seeing Microsoft communities and open-source communities grow together, which is ultimately of benefit to our customers," said Sam Ramji, senior director of Platform Strategy of Microsoft's Open Source Technology Center (OSTC). "The Linux community, for example, has built a platform used by many customers. So our strategy is to enhance interoperability between the Windows platform and many open-source technologies, which includes Linux, to provide the choices our customers are asking for."

So we guess it's true - we can all just get along after all.

Image Credit: Flickr