2010s
In 2011, Microsoft started contributing code to the Samba project. The same year, Microsoft also ported Node.js to Windows, upstreaming the code under Apache License 2.0.[9] The first version of Python Tools for Visual Studio (PTVS) was released in March 2011. After acquiring Skype in 2011, Microsoft continued maintaining the Skype Linux client.[9] In July 2011, Microsoft was the fifth largest contributor to the Linux 3.0 kernel at 4% of the total changes.[30][31] The company became a partner with LinuxTag for their 2011 event and also sponsored LinuxTag 2012.[32][33]
In 2012, Microsoft began hosting Linux virtual machines in the Azure cloud computing service and CodePlex introduced git support.[9] The company also ported Apache Hadoop to Windows, upstreaming the code under MIT License.[9] In March 2012, a completely rewritten version of ChronoZoom was made available as open source[34] via the Outercurve Foundation. Also, ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Razor, ASP.NET Web API, Reactive extensions, and IL2JS (an IL to JavaScript compiler) were released under Apache License 2.0.[9] The TypeScript programming language was released under Apache License 2.0 in 2012. It was the first Microsoft project hosted on GitHub.[9] In June 2012, Microsoft contributed
In 2013, Microsoft relicensed the xUnit.net unit testing tool for the .NET Framework under Apache License 2.0 and transferred it to the Outercurve Foundation.[9] Also in 2013, Microsoft added Git support to Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server using libgit2, the most widely deployed version of Git. The company is dedicating engineering hours to help further develop libgit2 and working with GitHub and other community programmers who devote time to the software.[36]
In 2014, Satya Nadella was named the new CEO of Microsoft. Microsoft began to adopt open source into its core business. In contrast to Ballmer's stance, Nadella presented a slide that read, "Microsoft loves Linux". At the time of the acquisition of GitHub, Nadella said of Microsoft, "We are all in on open source." As the industry trended towards cloud, embedded, and mobile computing, Microsoft turned to open source to stay apace in these open source dominated fields. Microsoft's adoption of open source included several surprising turns.
In 2014, the company opened the source of its .NET Framework to promote its software ecosystem and stimulate cross-platform development. Microsoft also started contributing to the OpenJDK the same year.[9] The Wireless Display Adapter, released in 2014, was Microsoft's first hardware device to use embedded Linux.[9]
In the beginning of 2015, Microsoft open sourced the Z3 Theorem Prover, a cross-platform satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) solver.[37]
Also in 2015, Microsoft co-founded the Node.js Foundation[38] and joined the R Foundation. After completing the acquisition of Revolution Analytics in 2015,[39] Microsoft integrated the open source R programming language into SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2017, SQL Server 2019, Power BI, Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure Cortana Intelligence, Microsoft ML Server and Visual Studio 2017.[40]
The same year, Microsoft also open sourced Matter Center, Microsoft's legal practice management software and also Chakra, the Microsoft Edge JavaScript engine at the time.[9] Also in 2015, Microsoft released Windows 10 with native support for the open-source AllJoyn framework, which means that any Windows 10 device can control any AllJoyn-aware Internet of Things (IoT) device in the network.[41] Microsoft has been developing AllJoyn support and contributing code upstream since 2014.[9]
Microsoft opened the keynote speech at All Things Open in 2015 by stating that:
"Microsoft's approach to open today is: Enable, integrate, release, and contribute."
In August 2015, Microsoft released WinObjC, also known as Windows Bridge for iOS, an open-source middleware toolkit that allows iOS apps developed in Objective-C to be ported to Windows 10.[43][44][45] On November 18, 2015, Visual Studio Code was released under the proprietary Microsoft License and a subset of its source code was posted to GitHub under the MIT License.[46]
In January 2016, Microsoft became Gold Sponsor of SCALE 14x – the fourteenth annual Southern California Linux Expo, a major convention.[48]
When Microsoft acquired Xamarin and LinkedIn in 2016, it relicensed the Mono framework under MIT License and continued maintaining the Kafka stream-processing software platform as open source.[9] Also in 2016, Microsoft introduced the Windows Subsystem for Linux, which lets Linux applications run on the Windows operating system. The company invested in Linux server technology and Linux development to promote cross-platform compatibility and collaboration with open source companies and communities, culminating with Microsoft's platinum sponsorship of the Linux Foundation and seat on its board of directors.
Microsoft released SQL Server and the now open source PowerShell for Linux.[9] Also, Microsoft began porting Sysinternals tools, including ProcDump and ProcMon, to Linux.[49] R Tools for Visual Studio were released under Apache License 2.0 in March 2016.
In March 2016, Ballmer changed his stance on Linux, saying that he supports his successor Satya Nadella's open source commitments. He maintained that his comments in 2001 were right at the time but that times have changed.[50][51]
Commentators have noted the adoption of open source and the change of strategy at Microsoft:[52]
"The company has become an enthusiastic supporter of Linux and of open source and a very active member of many important projects."
At EclipseCon in March 2016, Microsoft announced that the company is joining the Eclipse Foundation as a Solutions Member.[54]
The BitFunnel search engine indexing algorithm and various components of the Microsoft Bing search engine were made open source by Microsoft in 2016.[55][56] vcpkg, a cross-platform open source package manager, was released in September 2016.[57]
Microsoft joined the Open Source Initiative, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, and the MariaDB Foundation in 2017.[9] The Open Source Initiative, formerly a target of Microsoft, used the occasion of Microsoft's sponsorship as a milestone for open source software's widespread acceptance.
The Debian-based SONiC network operating system was open sourced by Microsoft in 2017.[58]
Also the same year, the Windows development was moved to Git and Microsoft open sourced the Git Virtual File System (GVFS) developed for that purpose.[59][60] Other contributions to Git include a number of performance improvements useful when working with large repositories.[61][62] Microsoft opened the Microsoft Store to open source applications and gave the keynote speech at the Open Source Summit North America 2017 in Los Angeles.[9]
In 2018, the Microsoft CTO of Data spoke with ZDNet about the growing importance of open source stating that:
"We meet customers where they are, and in particular if you want Linux we'll give you Linux; if you want MySQL, well we'll give you MySQL; you want NoSQL well we'll give you NoSQL -- that means you need to be part of open source; open source by nature is a community thing."
Microsoft became Platinum Sponsor and delivered the keynote of the 2018 Southern California Linux Expo – the largest community-run open-source and free software conference in North America.[64]
Microsoft developed Linux-based operating systems for use with its Azure cloud services. Azure Cloud Switch supports the Azure infrastructure and is based on open source and proprietary technology, and Azure Sphere powers Internet of things devices. As part of its announcement, Microsoft acknowledged Linux's role in small devices where the full Windows operating system would be unnecessary.
Also in 2018, Microsoft acquired GitHub, the largest host for open source project infrastructure. Microsoft is among the site's most active contributors and the site hosts the source code for Microsoft's Visual Studio Code and .NET runtime system. The company, though, has received some criticism for only providing limited returns to the Linux community, since the GPL license lets Microsoft modify Linux source code for internal use without sharing those changes.
In 2018, Microsoft included OpenSSH, tar, and curl commands in Windows.[67][68] Also, Microsoft released Windows Calculator as open source under MIT License on GitHub.[69]
Since 2018, Microsoft has been a sponsor of the AdoptOpenJDK project. It is a drop-in replacement for Oracle's Java/JDK.[70]
In April 2018, Microsoft released the Windows 3.x/Windows NT File Manager source code licensed under the MIT License.[71][72] In August 2018, Microsoft added support for the open source Python programming language to Power BI.[73] In October 2018, Microsoft joined the Open Invention Network[74] and cross-licensed 60,000 patents with the open source community.[75][76]
In 2019, Microsoft's Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 transitioned from an emulated Linux kernel to a full Linux kernel within a virtual machine, improving processor performance manifold. In-keeping with the GPL open source license, Microsoft will submit[when?] its kernel improvements for accommodation into the master, public release.[77]
Also in 2019, Microsoft released Windows Terminal, PowerToys, and the Microsoft C++ Standard Library as open source[9] and transitioned its Edge browser to use the open source Chromium as the basis.[78] The Windows Console infrastructure was open-sourced under the MIT License alongside Windows Terminal.[79]
After publishing exFAT as an open specification, Microsoft contributed the patents to the Open Invention Network (OIN), and started upstreaming the device driver to the Linux kernel.[9]
At Build 2019, Microsoft announced that it is open-sourcing its Quantum Development Kit, including its Q# compilers and simulators.[80]
In December 2019, Microsoft released Microsoft Teams for Linux. This marked the first time Microsoft released an Office app for the Linux operating system. The app is available in native packages in .deb and .rpm formats.[81] Also in December 2019, after JS Foundation and Node.js Foundation merged to form OpenJS Foundation, Microsoft contributed the popular cross-platform desktop application development tool Electron to OpenJS Foundation.[82][83]
