Posted on 12/15/2015 3:50:11 AM PST by ShadowAce
Last week when Microsoft and the Linux Foundation separately announced a partnership that would see Redmond issuing a Linux certification called Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate Linux (MCSA), Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols felt the need to add the words "not a typo" to the headline of his coverage on ZDNet. A couple of days later, when the story made the pages of The Register the headline included, "Do not adjust your set. This is not an error."
We were just as surprised here at FOSS Force, and Larry Cafiero pulled no punches when breaking the story in Friday's Week in Review. "There's the argument that because Microsoft 'loves' Linux…we should be more inclusive," he wrote, "but this is the company that considered Linux a cancer and has fought FOSS for decades. Rather than throw the Microsoft that is treading water a life preserver, I still think throwing it an anchor would be more fitting."
So what spin did the Linux Foundation, the keeper of the Linux keys, use for its headline when announcing the pact? "A Great Start to a Great Partnership."
The announcement was written by no less than Jim Zemlin, the foundation's executive director. "Microsoft is demonstrating a sincere, smart and practical approach to how it builds new technologies and supports its vast customer base," he wrote. "Microsoft open sourced .NET; it open sourced key parts of its web browser; and it uses Linux for its Azure Cloud Switch. The Linux Foundation and Microsoft share a common, strategic approach to technology development: balance internal R&D with external R&D to create the most important technologies of our time."
For those who missed last week's story, to receive Microsoft's Linux on Azure certification, applicants will be required to pass both Microsoft's own "Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions" exam (officially Microsoft Exam 70-533) and the Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator (LFCS) exam. The certs are being issued by Microsoft and became available on the day the announcement was made.
As expected, Redmond kept to the "we love Linux" mantra it's been chanting since Satya Nadella began sitting in the chair Ballmer had been keeping warm: "'The Linux Foundation is the leading organization representing stakeholder interests in the open source ecosystem. That, combined with its proven commitment to professional, distribution-flexible and performance-based certifications, makes it a natural choice for our partner for Linux on Azure certifications,' said Steven Guggenheimer, chief evangelist at Microsoft."
What was unexpected was the Microsoft love that the foundation returned.
"Microsoft, many times over, is demonstrating a strategic approach to open source in order to serve its customers and work well with the global community," Zemlin said. "This is just the beginning of what we expect to be a long and successful partnership."
Although I didn't see this coming, I should have after the November 4 announcement that Red Hat was joining hands with Microsoft Azure in a deal that sent Red Hat employees to work at the Redmond campus, and which would result in RHEL being named by Microsoft as its preferred choice for enterprise Linux. On December 8, the day before Microsoft's new Linux/Azure certification was made public, Red Hat announced it had added support for Azure to its CloudForms tools.
The bottom line is that Microsoft "loves" all things Linux because with the advent of the cloud, on which the company is betting its future, it can sell it. More specifically, Microsoft absolutely must offer Linux to potential Azure customers if it's to have a cloud business at all, as offering Windows without Linux would be pretty much worthless. Mark Russinovich, Microsoft Azure's CTO, said as much during a keynote address at the All Things Open conference in October.
"It's obvious that if we don't support Linux and open source in our cloud," he said, "then we'll be a Windows only cloud, and that would not be practical."
This latest partnership between Microsoft and the Linux Foundation only goes to illustrate something we already know: For all practical purposes, the Linux kernel is a wholly owned subsidiary of big business -- and it's being developed without a care for the wants and needs of desktop GNU/Linux users or free tech advocates.
Modern Linux is built by big business for big business, with 80 percent of the heavy lifting coming from corporate programmers, which was pointed out recently in a ZDNet article by Vaughan-Nichols. Intel, Red Hat, Linaro, Samsung, IBM and SUSE supply the manpower and decide the direction development should take, and as much as we "everyday Linux users" would like to think it ours, it's not. We're just the poor cousins who get to use it because of the GPL.
If the suits who sit in the boardrooms of corporate tech think they need Microsoft -- quite frankly, at this stage of the game they do -- then the Linux Foundation will continue to put lipstick on a pig and declare there will be peace in our time, even as Microsoft continues practices like extorting money from manufacturers of Linux devices for patents it may or may not have.
Deals like these give Microsoft credibility it doesn't deserve. Unfortunately, there will certainly be more such deals, and Redmond will be able to pass itself off as an open source company without having to do the hard work necessary for it to become a good open source citizen.
This shouldn’t be religion. Ballmer is gone. Microsoft is doing a decent job getting reconciled to the new environment, and the company CERTAINLY is not treading water.
Yes, and Microsoft is forcing the biggest spyware ever called Windows 10.
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There are plenty of Linux certifications out there. Why shouldn’t M$ have one for Azure?
Careful! I don’t think the moderators allow that “voice of reason” stuff here on the OS Religion Forum threads.
Having said that, if M$ really wants to embrace Linux, they should port Office 2016 to Linux (either RPM, DEB, or both). They should also write an official Onedrive client for Linux (again RPM, DEB, or both).
I don’t see either happening anytime soon.
>> Rather than throw the Microsoft that is treading water a life preserver
I don’t quite understand that part. Microsoft has been doing very well lately, as evidenced by their latest earnings and the subsequent pop in their share price. What does he mean, “treading water”?
MS is doing very well in the desktop area.
Not so much in servers, or other Enterprise-class services/products.
Yes--their stock price has been doing well--but they've been leaning on the desktop product far too heavily.
That's her opinion, I believe. I haven't been following them enough to know.
“At risk”, I can understand.
“Treading water” is hyperbole.
Anyway the “big picture” is a BIG picture comprising cloud services, mobile devices, desktop OS, corporate servers, productivity apps, etc., and again, in terms of shareholder value MS seems to be more than holding their own.
I have always been fascinated by the tribal nature of the geek community’s hatred towards certain OSs, and technology companies.
Software, in general, actually began as open source, and free to distribute among anyone who wanted to use it.
Bill Gates came along in the 70's and started lobbying for selling code, rather than just giving it away. There was a lot of backlash then, and it hasn't really stopped.
It's not about having a different OS--most developers and admins agree that choice is good. It's about MS' attitude towards the community that created their attitude towards MS.
It seems to me the most intelligent OS is Linux and the user’s are far more intelligent, what I don’t understand is why it has to be so complex for the average home computer user, it should be easy to make it even more simple to use than Windows or Mac, rather than a raging sea of complexities.
Bill Gates came along in the 70's and started lobbying for selling code, rather than just giving it away. There was a lot of backlash then, and it hasn't really stopped.
Imagine what the software landscape would look like if there just wasn't any money to be made in programming.
Cooperate.
Co-opt.
Control.
Giving away Visual Studio to indies was a big big step.
That's pretty much exactly my current dayjob workstation setup. Works extremely well.
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