Microsoft code cannot taint Linux

Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 21 July 2009 09:18

Opinion and Analysis

Way back in January 2007, kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman made an offer to manufacturers - that kernel developers would code free drivers for those who were willing to release the specifications needed for the task.

The manufacturer would then be assured of having a working driver in the main Linux kernel source tree; the driver would be updated through any changes in application programming interfaces and will also work with all the architectures on which Linux runs.

Kroah-Hartman, who is employed by Novell, has been involved deeply in this case too. The code has been developed and certified both for SUSE Linux and Red Hat Linux - Novell has a patent deal with Microsoft while Red Hat has an inter-operability agreement in place.

Microsoft is often described by people as the great satan. But there are people within its ranks, many of them on the right side of 40, who are keenly aware that the next generation of software is all about free and open source software.

The plus-50s in Microsoft's ranks may be getting ready to take their money and run. But the others have to stay and work for a decade or so - and they know that the main model for development will be that which FOSS follows.

They don't want to be pariahs in the FOSS community. They want to be accepted.

Of course, they have purely selfish motives for wanting this acceptance - they may well need to find jobs within a broadening FOSS industry as the proprietary market shrinks, due to cost and other pressures.

And many of these people are pushing for less hostile dealings with the FOSS industry. Even Microsoft cannot ignore them totally.