

Microsoft submits code to be considered for the Linux Kernel - hexis
http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/NicFill/Microsoft-Contributes-Code-to-the-Linux-Kernel/

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scscsc
For those who skipped the details, its a bunch of drivers to make Linux work
better under their hypervisor. I think this is a smart move from Microsoft,
both in the short and in the long term. It scores points with the open source
movement, it scores points with their clients who run Linux over Windows and
in the long run they gain leverage over what their users really run (Windows,
not Linux).

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jacquesm
Did hell freeze over or what ?

(checks outside)

While I'm pleased that microsoft would do a thing like this I wonder what
their motives are. It's not as if open source is very high up in their
priority list and Steve Ballmer is on the record as saying that Open Source is
enemy #1 of microsoft.

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bep
They are fighting with VMWare in the virtualization market. They need this to
have a better support of HyperV in Linux. That means work with the kernel
developers and their rules.

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gscott
Embrace, extend, extinguish. That should enough reason to keep out even an
otherwise perfectly functional contribution.

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jknupp
Code itself has no agenda. You would reject code solely on the basis of its
submitter even if it adds desired functionality (which seems to be the case
here)? That's an extremely slippery slope.

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gscott
That is being greedy and unwise. Once Linux fully works well like Microsoft
wants with Windows that gives Microsoft the door for them to say "Well your
system is fully interoperable with Windows already, we are coming out with a
new version that breaks that functionality and you will no longer be able to
use the system like you have been, why don't you just switch to Windows on all
of your machines and save yourself the hassle". It will take a few years but
Microsoft is in business for the long haul, they will feed Linux just enough
to hang it.

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scscsc
I am not contesting that what you say is technically possible, but that would
be a bad move from Microsoft considering they are threatened non-stop with
anti-monopoly suits.

Also, they don't need to change Windows, just the hypervisor. Though it would
probably break other OSs too, not just Linux.

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mbenjaminsmith
It's a trojan.

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scscsc
Why would you say that?

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mbenjaminsmith
Bad joke...

