Pigs do fly: Microsoft unleashes 20,000 lines of Linux code

Microsoft is releasing three Microsoft-developed Linux drivers to the Linux community for possible inclusion in the Linux source tree.

This is the first time Microsoft has made Microsoft-developed code available directly to the Linux community. The Redmondians have released various pieces of code under different open-source licenses over the past few years, but this is the first time Microsoft has released Linux code and the first time the company has used the GPL license to release code, I believe. (Anyone know otherwise?) My ZDNet blogging colleague Jason Perlow says Microsoft previously released part of the Linux Integration Components under the GPL, so this isn’t technically the first-ever GPL’d code from the Softies.

Microsoft made the Linux driver announcement on July 20, the opening day of the O’Reilly OSCON open-source conference.

(The driver news also comes a week after Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner told Microsoft reseller partners that Microsoft has competed really well against “the fraudulent perception of free” that is at the core of many Linux vendors’ sales pitches. Not all of Microsoft management is onboard with this newfangled licensing world….)

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