Microsoft's Linux madness has a method

Linux alignment helps cloud, virtualization efforts

By John Fontana, Network World
July 23, 2009 12:11 PM ET

Under the glare of Microsoft's historic Linux kernel code submission this week is the fact that the software giant on many levels still lives in a community of one much more so than a community at large.

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Experts agree Microsoft is finally coming to grips with Linux, open source and its development model as evidenced by its virtualization device driver contribution to the Linux kernel and commitment to a GPLv2 license, which Microsoft has long lambasted.

That's the community at large that Microsoft knows it must respect as users live more and more in mixed environments.
But Microsoft's Linux surprise clearly represents a shrewd, tactical move to position itself in high stakes markets where it sees huge growth.

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"This move is not so much about doing something specific to control the growth of Linux as much as it is to put Microsoft in a position that is strategically more important long term," says Al Gillen an analyst with IDC.

Those long-term goals, and mighty revenue opportunities, are focused on taking a dominant role in virtualization and cloud computing markets.

That's the community-of-one talking.

Click to see: Timelinee of Microsoft-Linux efforts

"Why should Microsoft let a religious distaste for Linux get in the way of making a lot of money on Windows Server 2008 being the hypervisor under all those Linux servers," says Jeffrey Hammond, an analyst with Forrester Research. "That is a sign of the opportunity they see here."

Microsoft's open source virtualization device drivers offer performance and storage enhancements to any distribution of Linux running on top of Microsoft's hypervisor – Hyper-V.

But lest anyone believes Microsoft is somehow completely transitioning to an open source way of thinking, there is more evidence to consider.

The company's Linux kernel submission, which was followed a day later with a second open source contribution using GPLv2, is contrasted by the company signing just a week earlier yet another cross-patent licensing deal, this time with Melco Holdings.

Such deals, which Microsoft began signing in 2006 starting with Novell, protect partners against lawsuits over 235 patents Microsoft claims it holds on technology found in Linux. Partners pay Microsoft royalties and customers get indemnification, an intellectual property mindset that is the polar opposite of open source.

Bottom line: Microsoft's kernel submission points to positives for both Linux and Windows.

Linux gets a boost

Linux benefits from the fact that the code contribution validates the open source development model and the GPLv2 licensing model used throughout the kernel.

"Microsoft is publicly stating that GPLv2 is a valid development license and something that is acceptable for contributing code…that makes me very happy,” says Greg Kroah-Hartman, the Linux driver project lead and a Novell fellow.

In the past, Microsoft has said the GPL poses a threat to the intellectual property (IP) of any company that uses it, that GPL is a cancer that attaches itself to IP, and that the license equates to anti-capitalism.