Microsoft supporting linux

Why is Microsoft giving legitimacy to Linux instead of demonizing it to stop people from using it?

Legitimacy isearned,it is notgiven.

Microsoft, in the era of Bill Gates and then Steve Ballmer, did try to demonize Linux. It even paid people to write disinformation and FUD about Linux, including a book which falsely claimed that Linus Torvalds plagiarized Linux from MINIX. It took public statements from Andrew S. Tanenbaum, the author of MINIX, to clear Linus’ name on that one—but you still occasionally hear this lie more than 20 years later.

Despite Microsoft’s best efforts in that era, Linux grew in popularity. It has never displaced Windows from the desktop, but it is by far the No. 1 enterprise OS in the world, used on 96.4 percent of all Web servers in the world, and with a similar marketshare in other enterprise segments. Most people use some form of Linux every day and don’t even realize it. All Android smartphones and nearly all “smart” devices run on the Linux kernel.

Linux therefore earned its legitimacy based on merit.

Microsoft no longer attacks Linux because after pushing out Ballmer, it realized that a vital part of its future as a company was based on providing software, data center, and infrastructure for enterprise computing, and that Windows was only secondary to this. Well, guess what operating system is dominant in enterprise computing.

So Microsoft has made its peace with Tux, and provides services and interoperability with Linux now. Continuing to fight Linux would only be bad for business. By workingwithLinux rather thanagainstit, Microsoft has a place at the table with people who develop Linux itself and the tools that go with it. There is always going to be some mistrust there, but it’s in everyone’s interest to coexist.

Ultimately, Microsoft is about making money. Always has been. There’s more money to be made with Linux than there is as an enemy of Linux.