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this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2024
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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The article is making a big deal that he works for Microsoft but also says he’s been doing this back since his days working at Google. It never says that this work is part of his official job at Microsoft, though, and I don’t know if we could even know that unless it’s part of his job title. Do we know that Microsoft hired him to do this or could it just be this has been his longtime passion project and he’s doing it outside of his work responsibilities, and he just happens to currently work for Microsoft as his day job?
If you browse the LKML (Linux Kernel Mailing List) for 5 minutes, you'll probably see a bunch of microsoft.com email addresses, and it's been that way for years. I understand why it bothers some people, but also Linus (and a couple others) approve everything that actually gets merged, whether it's from a microsoft employee, or a redhat employee, or anyone else. Even if microsoft wanted to pay employees to submit patches that would hurt the kernel, the chance that they'd actually be approved is so low it wouldn't be worth their time.
To be clear, I wasn’t thinking Microsoft was sabotaging Linux; if they’re contributing officially I assume it’s because they’re also using it or want to increase adoption of something they’re creating by making it widely available.
@jqubed @MrMcGasion Microsoft uses Linux for it's Azure Cloud services and internally for building purposes