Microsoft Open Source Software Policy

2021

Free Azure. Microsoft has begun to support open source software developers in a new way

At the end of September 2021, Microsoft announced the provision of credit points to open source projects that can be used for one year to free access to selected Azure services. The company believes that such a proposal will reduce financial pressure on developers and stimulate innovation in this area.

Any developer with a license approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) is eligible to apply for credit points, Microsoft said. They can be used for testing, storage, any other tasks within the framework of development. The company promises developers to consider applications within three to four weeks, participants will be able to reapply in subsequent years in order to continue to receive points. Those interested can apply on the Azure Credits website.

В конце сентября 2021 года Microsoft сообщила о предоставлении open source projects credit points that can be used for one year for free access to selected Azure services

In the FAQ section of the program's webpage, officials explained the reasons for the loans as follows: "Open source software is an integral part of developments at Microsoft, aligned with our goal of enabling all developers to successfully build any application using any language on any platform. We strive to create open, flexible technologies and work with the open source community to grow together as an industry. We're going back to the open-source ecosystem that we participate in and depend on "

Microsoft reported that the company has already provided credit points to some well-known as well as small open source projects, including FreeBSD, Alma Linux, Haskell, Snakemate and Promoter. Microsoft continues to proactively release many of its products and services under an open source license and is trying in various ways to attract the attention of developers who work on open source solutions.^[1]

Release of CBL-Mariner Linux distribution

In mid-July 2021 Microsoft , it released the first stable version of its Linux proprietary, CBL-Mariner 1.0 (Common Base Linux Mariner) which is used by the company for internal needs, including for cloud infrastructure and. Azure peripheral computing More. here

Launch your organization to create Open Source mobile software development tools

In early March 2021, the Linux Foundation launched the Mobile Native Foundation, designed to encourage the creation of open source tools for mobile application development. Read more here.

2020

Microsoft admitted that it was in vain fighting Open Source

In mid-May 2020, Microsoft President Brad Smith publicly admitted that Microsoft was in vain fighting Open Source. In a video conversation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he said the following:

Microsoft chose the wrong side when open source projects appeared at the beginning of the century, and I personally was also wrong. The good news is that our lives are long enough and sometimes we realise we need to change. Microsoft has certainly changed since it considered Linux a "cancer." Today, our company is investing more than others in the development of open source projects, ahead of Facebook, Docker, Google, Apache and many others in this regard.

Microsoft admits historical error regarding Open sSource

Smith stressed that Microsoft is the largest provider of Open Source projects in the world by May 2020 when "it comes to business."

The changed attitude of the company can really be seen in many projects. For example, Microsoft has included support for Linux with several functions in its own Windows operating system. Among other things, they include full system call compatibility and the ability to run the full Linux kernel on Windows.

Microsoft joined the Open Invention Network (OIN) consortium set up to protect Linux from intellectual property prosecutions; implemented Ubuntu in Windows 10, and then the full Linux kernel in its OS update.

In addition, Microsoft has released the PowerToys Run application for Windows 10, which it has created in conjunction with open-source developers. So far, the application duplicates the search functions from the Start menu: it allows you to quickly find applications and files in Windows, as well as running processes in the system. However, Microsoft plans to improve it by adding new features.^[2]

Microsoft has integrated Windows Explorer with Linux

On April 8, 2020, Microsoft introduced an update for Windows 10, in which, among other things, it implemented the integration of Explorer with Linux operating systems. An innovation that provides access to Linux files in a Windows environment is seen in the build of Windows 10 Fast Ring 9603, which is available within. Insider Preview programs. Read more here.

2019

Microsoft joins Hyperledger

In mid-June 2019, Norilsk Nickel, as well as Microsoft and Salesforce, joined the Hyperledger consortium. New members of the organization will pay membership fees and develop new applications using Hyperledger. Read more here.

Joining an OpenChain Organization

On February 6, 2019, Microsoft announced its entry into the OpenChain organization, which deals with standardization in the field of open source software licensing. Read more here.

2018: Placing LibreOffice on the Microsoft Store

In July 2018, the LibreOffice software package became available in the Microsoft Online Store. It is offered completely free of charge without functional restrictions. You can also purchase a version for $3, which does not offer additional features, but is a kind of donation to developers. True, it is not clear who exactly the funds are going to. Read more here.

2016

Microsoft's leadership in the popularity of Open Source projects among developers on GitHub

In September 2016, the developer service ON GitHub published statistics related to the work of the portal for the year. The report noted leadership Microsoft in the number of participants in open projects.

In 2016, Microsoft ranked first in the number of GitHub users participating in Open Source projects of companies. The software giant has 16,419 developer users of the service. In second place in this indicator is Facebook with 15,682 users. Read more here.

Microsoft has released its FreeBSD distribution

In June 2016 Microsoft , she released her own distribution open. operating system FreeBSD Thus, the American corporation continues to develop projects in the field. Open Source More. here

Oracle Linux CEO moved to Microsoft

In early April 2016, it became known about the transfer of Wim Coekaerts from Oracle to Microsoft. By bringing the Linux boss to Oralce, the Windows manufacturer has once again shown its growing interest in a competing operating system. Read more here.

2015

Red Hat became Microsoft's main Linux partner in the cloud market

On November 4, 2015, Microsoft announced a collaboration with Red Hat in the cloud market, thereby continuing to support the Linux operating system.

As part of the agreement, Red Hat Enterprise Linux will be available to Azure users. This is not the first Linux distribution compatible with Microsoft's cloud platform, however Enterprise Linux will be a priority for Azure enterprise clients. They will be able to run virtual machines running Red Hat Enterprise Linux and applications like JBoss Web Server and OpenShift in the Microsoft cloud.

In the Microsoft Azure cloud, it will be possible to run virtual machines running Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat applications

In addition, the partnership between Microsoft and Red Hat will involve the provision of joint technical support services for customers. To do this, some of the Red Hat employees will move to Microsoft headquarters. The companies decided to provide this service together, since in the case of 90% of customers it intersects, said Mike Evans, vice president of corporate development at Red Hat.

The alliance between Microsoft and Red Hat aims to help large companies deploy hybrid cloud environments. At the same time, Microsoft even earlier provided the opportunity to work with Linux on Azure.

As noted by Jason Zander, corporate vice president and head of business at Microsoft Azure, by early November 2015, every fourth corporate user of Azure launches one or more Linux distributions in Azure, and in China there are even more of them - about every second.

"We have many customers who want to use the corporate version of Linux and who have already developed a relationship with Red Hat," Zander said.

Azure's ability to run Linux virtual machines not only increases competition in the cloud market, but also provides additional opportunities for sharing Open Source technologies and Microsoft cloud services.

Deutsche Bank analysts are confident that the deal between Microsoft and Red Hat will have a favorable effect on the quotes of both companies. Financial terms of cooperation were not disclosed.^[3]

Microsoft Azure Cloud Switch Linux distribution announcement

On September 17, 2015, Microsoft announced its operating system based on the Linux kernel. A platform called Azure Cloud Switch (ACS) will not appear on desktops and laptops, it is designed to work on network equipment in corporate networks. ACS is called the manufacturer of a cross-platform modular operating system for creating network equipment for data centers using Linux.

Microsoft has started using open source software more than ever before

Over the past year and a half Microsoft , I began to use much more software with - open source "more than ever before," said TAdviser CTO (Microsoft Business Solutions Mike Ehrenberg Mike Ehrenberg) in November 2015.

He noted that such software is now used to one degree or another in many Microsoft products. Mike Ehrenberg chose not to announce their full list. As an example, a Microsoft representative cited the Cortana Analytics Suite, introduced in July 2015. One of its components - HDInsight is its own version of Hadoop, created by Microsoft and optimized to work with its Azure cloud platform .

In September 2015, Microsoft^[4] about developing its own OS on the Linux kernel - Azure Cloud Switch (ACS), designed for network equipment. At that time, it followed from the message that Microsoft plans to use it in its data centers.

In October 2014, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that his company loves Linux

Speaking about why the corporation has become more active in using open source software in its products, the CTO of Microsoft Business Solutions notes that in some cases it is more effective to use ready-made development than to create it yourself from scratch: "If there is code that solves a certain problem and that many use, then starting to write similar code is not very effective for us."

"In my opinion, one of the positive things about using open source software is the ability to move faster in your own development by not having to reinvent something. It is also good from the point of view of developers: they can devote more time to what is really new, instead of writing code to solve a problem that has already been solved, "said Mike Ehrenberg

He also told TAdviser that Microsoft has done serious work to make it easier for its engineers to develop products using open source software. One of the steps towards this was the creation of special tools for them.

A Microsoft spokesman explained that the corporation is focused on using open source software in its solutions, which is distributed under licenses that do not oblige the entire code of the derived program to be publicly available. Tools created in Microsoft allow developers to understand whether they can use this or that open source software, whether all the conditions of its license are met during the development process, etc. The same tools allow you to check if a similar open source software is already being used by some other development team at Microsoft, says Mike Ehrenberg.

Microsoft has also trained its developers on how to determine whether open source software can be used in one case or another and how to work with it, a corporation spokesman added.

Previously, Microsoft was very reluctant to use open source software in its products, said Mike Ehrenberg in a conversation with TAdviser. This was done only by individual developers, this situation was not typical.

Threats to remove laboratories from the UK if authorities switch to Open Source

On May 22, 2015, it became known about the sanctions threatened by Microsoft if the British government implements plans to promote open source software. This was told by Steve Hilton, one of the former advisers to the head of the British government, David Cameron.

According to Hilton, when the Conservative Party proposed transferring state computer systems to Open Source technology, Microsoft began to intensively lobby for its interests in parliament. The software giant even threatened to cover up its own research centers in the UK.

Microsoft threatened sanctions to the British public sector moving to Open Source

Microsoft has organized a direct telephone line between members of the UK Parliament from the Conservative Party and their R&D offices, saying that offices will be closed if an initiative is adopted aimed at introducing an Open Document Format (ODF). As The Guardian wrote on May 22, 2015, for many years Microsoft tried to oppose conservatives who promoted the introduction of an open format of documents. It became the standard for UK government agencies in 2014^[5]

Opening the code of a number of your developments

In 2015, Microsoft announced the discovery of the code for some of its developments. One of them - Microsoft^[6]designed for decentralized machine learning - the simultaneous use of many computers to solve resource-intensive computing problems. The platform code was posted on the GitHub website. The corporation said that over time, Microsoft plans to add new features to DMLT, which will also be open.

In August, Microsoft published on GitHub the source code for a preliminary version of its Windows Bridge program, designed to transfer an iOS application to Windows. Windows Bridge allows you to migrate iOS applications to Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 on x86 and x64 computers. According to Microsoft's plans, the program should later receive support for mobile devices with ARM architecture.

Microsoft also announced plans in January 2016 to open the source code of its JavaScript engine Chakra by publishing it on GitHub. A code repository called ChakraCore will include key engine components used in the Edge browser. The engine was created in 2008 and is used in many Microsoft applications on Xbox, smartphones and PCs.

Microsoft became the first gold sponsor of OpenBSD

In July, Microsoft was awarded the title of the first gold sponsor of OpenBSD, which implies the provision of annual financial assistance to the project in the amount of $25 to $50 thousand. Prior to this, the largest sponsors of OpenBSD were Google and Facebook, which transferred the project from $10 to $25 thousand per year.

The OpenBSD project, in turn, sponsors the development of OpenSSHH, a set of network console tools designed for secure access to remote computers based on various operating systems, including Windows. Microsoft previously announced its intention to join the OpenSSH developer community and improve support for the Windows platform.

Microsoft does not exclude the appearance of open Windows

In April 2015, Mark Russinovich, CTO of the Microsoft Azure platform, announced that he would allow open Windows to appear in the future.

2014

Microsoft opens.NET source code

In November 2014, Microsoft^[7] to open full access to the source code of the server side of its.NET platform - a framework that has long been the main programming model for building applications for. Windows The company also expanded its capabilities to work with OS Linux and Mac.

Earlier in 2014, Microsoft already opened the source code for the.NET compiler (Roslyn).

Microsoft loves Linux

With the arrival of Satya Nadella to Microsoft management in 2014, the corporation's attitude towards open source programs became more loyal. Thus, the codes of the .NET server kernel were opened, and the share of Azure systems running Linux increased to 20%.

In October 2014, Nadella stated that "Microsoft loves Linux." At the same time, he cited data that more than 20% of all virtual machines operating under the Azure cloud platform use Linux.

2012: Microsoft develops JavaScript add-ons

In 2012, Microsoft introduced TipeScript, a JavaScript add-on that allows the language to be used in the development of large-scale applications. The corporation has published TypeScript specifications and an open source compiler in the CodePlex repository. In addition, Microsoft has developed a TypeScript extension module for Visual Studio.

the past five years, we have increasingly heard customer complaints that writing large-scale JavaScript applications is too difficult," noted Microsoft. - TypeScript is designed to simplify JavaScript development and lay the foundation for advanced debugging tools, as well as mechanisms for autocomplete code, refactoring and simplified navigation through large programs. "

2008: Pushing OOXML into ISO status

In April 2008, despite the discontent of many organizations, Office Open XML (OOXML) received ISO status.

Первые лица Microsoft often suffer from haters of the monopoly position of their corporation. The last incident occurred in the spring of 2008 - Steve Ballmer at a speech at a Hungarian university came under fire from eggs. In 1998, Belgian avant-garde artist Noel Godin, during a visit by Bill Gates to Brussels, managed to flatten a cream cake on the face of the head of Microsoft

The company's proposal in 2005 to make the Open XML file format an international standard was supported. ISO (International Organization for Standardization) intends to issue an official memorandum on this matter.

Once issued, ISO/IEC certification means that the development of specifications, officially called Draft International Standard (DIS) 29500, will be carried out by members of ISO - an international organization with representatives from more than 100 countries.

At the technical level, this means that the changes proposed during the standardization process must be included in Open XML, which is now the default document format in Microsoft Office 2007. It was reported that soon Microsoft, Novell and other companies whose software works with this file format will have to update their products. Since these specifications will develop in the future, these companies will have to support all the changes being made.

At this time, there is distrust among companies of Microsoft's efforts to establish interoperability between its products and other software, including with open-source. But according to Burton Group analyst Peter o'Kelly, ISO ratification is a significant step towards supporting Microsoft standards.

Now Open XML will be subject to numerous technical level studies and people will be able not to be afraid of any legal difficulties associated with writing software based on this certification.

"A lot of people continue to think that Microsoft has not changed its principles of operation and Microsoft's previous policy is a vivid confirmation of this," O'Kelly said. "Now it's not the same as 1998. Now the company really understands the importance of standards. "

Asked what ISO status for Open XML gives, standards expert Jan van der Beld, who worked for Microsoft's CompTIA group, said "not very much at the moment." He said government customers and big corporations who favour certified standards now have a choice. "It removes another barrier to doing business in an environment where it used to be difficult to do business," van der Beld said.

But many people who pay attention to standards, including open-source advocates, are very alarmed by the fact of ratification by the ISO. Many national standards organizations said no to Open XML or abstained even after the February Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM), which aimed to solve technical problems. The results of the vote showed that 75 percent voted "yes" and 14 - "no." At the time, a spokesman for Standards Norge, Norway's standards organisation, complained about how the vote went, but it was unlikely to affect the results.

The adoption procedure drew criticism from delegations of ISO member countries and independent experts, which resulted in more than 80% of comments on the standard being put to a vote without discussion or seeking consensus. At the same time, four members of ISO and IEC - the national standards organizations of Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela - filed formal appeals regarding the standardization of OOXML, pointing out numerous violations during the procedure for considering the standard in ISO. The appeals were rejected by the ISO/IEC, after which the standards organizations of the four countries filed a declaration, which also condemned the action of the ISO and IEC bodies in the process of adopting the OOXML specification as an international standard. However, in the end, objections to the standardization of Office Open XML office format did not receive the necessary support.

It is noteworthy that a number of companies, in particular Google, Red Hat, Linux Foundation, actively promoting open source software, also spoke out against the adoption of Office Open XML. Microsoft is also criticized for the fact that the documents of the Word text editor, which is part of the latest version of Microsoft Office 2007, do not meet the latest specifications of the ISO OOXML standard.

IBM representatives who oppose standardization argue that Open XML looks superfluous when OpenDocument Format (ODF) is available, technically imperfect and not "open" enough. A company official declined to comment prior to the official announcement of the ISO.

A few days before the vote, the Free Software Foundation presented a legal analysis that the protection of rights in Open XML is not trustworthy.

Representatives from Microsoft and other firms say that different "standards" serve different purposes, while others argue that a large number of standards are also a wrong decision and for the same reason.

The ODF specification editor, Patrick Durusau, advocated for the ISO to approve Open XML, which would help improve ODF compatibility.

Many complaints were related to the fact that Microsoft and Ecma - the standardization organization that manages certification - conducted the process of obtaining ISO status in an accelerated format, which implies the standard passing tests consisting of a total of 6,000 certification tests.

Standards expert and ODF advocate Andrew Updegrove said there would be a full review of the entire certification process.

is that some changes need to be made to how this process works, so the next time such a strategically and commercially important standard is considered, this process will work better," he said.

1990s-2000s: Linux is cancer

Information about the use of open source software in Microsoft products appeared in the media back in the late 90s and early 2000s. Then it was a question of the fact that separate Windows OS blocks used FreeBSD software components, for example, in the TCP/IP section, which provides Internet connection . FreeBSD was also used on the servers of the Microsoft Hotmail mail service .

Microsoft representatives initially denied this^[8]. At that time, Microsoft took an aggressive position regarding open source software. Steve Ballmer, when he was CEO of Microsoft in 2001, said in an interview that "Linux is a cancer that, in terms of intellectual property, sucks on everything it touches."

Notes