Microsoft's former open source VP Wim Coekaerts
Equal Footing
Former Microsoft open source VP Wim Coekaerts.
Microsoft has changed its ways since the old days, when the company gained a reputation for spreading what the FOSS community liked to call FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) about Linux. The new Microsoft has gradually released parts of the .NET platform to open source, and recently, CEO Satya Nadella stated that Microsoft "loves Linux." Some long-time FOSS watchers are skeptical, but the Linux Foundation recently showed their support by welcoming Microsoft as a Platinum-level member.
As part of that effort to upgrade their Linux position and improve their standing within the community, Microsoft hired Wim Coekaerts, who had helped jump-start the Linux effort at Oracle as the new Corporate Vice President of Enterprise Open Source. Coekaerts only stayed at Microsoft for eight months before he was lured back to Oracle, but according to Coekaerts, the decision to leave was strictly personal. He is quoted as saying "… from my short time [at Microsoft], I saw a company that really does love Linux and has a bright future in open source."
We caught up with Coekaerts at LinuxCon North America in Toronto (while he was still with Microsoft) and asked him about the company's changing attitude toward Linux.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
LibreOffice Tested as Possible Office 365 Alternative
Another major organization has decided to test the possibility of migrating from Microsoft's Office 365 to LibreOffice.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.