Microsoft Contributes Linux Drivers to Linux Community

Yes, you read it right. Microsoft contributes towards Linux Community. Sounds good ?

REDMOND, Wash., July 20, 2009 — Today, in a break from the ordinary, Microsoft released 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux community. The code, which includes three Linux device drivers, has been submitted to the Linux kernel community for inclusion in the Linux tree. The drivers will be available to the Linux community and customers alike, and will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V or Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.

PressPass: So what exactly are you releasing today?

Hanrahan: Today we’re releasing Linux device driver code to the Linux kernel community. This is a significant milestone because it’s the first time we’ve released code directly to the Linux community. Additionally significant is that we are releasing the code under the GPLv2 license, which is the Linux community’s preferred license.

Our initial goal in developing the code was to enable Linux to run as a virtual machine on top of Hyper-V, Microsoft’s hypervisor and implementation of virtualization.

The Linux device drivers we are releasing are designed so Linux can run in enlightened mode, giving it the same optimized synthetic devices as a Windows virtual machine running on top of Hyper-V. Without this driver code, Linux can run on top of Windows, but without the same high performance levels. We worked very closely with the Hyper-V team at Microsoft to make that happen.

Read more from the Microsoft PressPass…

https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/Jul09/07-20LinuxQA.mspx

And also if you are really interested how Microsoft contributes towards Open Source, visit https://www.microsoft.com/opensource/

On the above portal you will what different projects Microsoft is currently working on contributing towards open source.

Happy Open Sourcing :)