Microsoft has released a Debian Linux switch OS. Repeat, a Debian Linux switch OS

[J65nko]

From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03..._sonic_debian/

OCP Summit Put down your coffee gently. Microsoft has today released a homegrown open-source operating system, based on Debian GNU/Linux, that runs on network switches.

The software is dubbed SONiC, aka Software for Open Networking in the Cloud. It's a toolkit of code to bend switch hardware to your will, so you can dictate how it works and what it can do, rather than relying on proprietary firmware from a traditional networking vendor.

It also pits Redmond against white-box network operating systems from the likes of HP, Dell, and Cumulus Networks.

SONiC builds upon the Windows giant's Linux-based Azure Cloud Switch (ACS) operating system that we learned about in September.

[Carpetsmoker]

Open source C#?! SQL server for Linux?! A free Microsoft Debian distro?!

There is no order in the universe any more.

[roddierod]

Truely...the sky has fallen and the pigs are flying.

[J65nko]

And hell has frozen over

The only thing you can count on these days, are your fingers

[shep]

Is it possible that they recognize that the Redhat/Fedora model is tough competition? It looks like a similar relationship is starting to develop.

Carry this a little further, what about secure Network appliances and the OpenSSH donations?

[sacerdos_daemonis]

It is also possible they see the value of using the work volunteers and companies have done over the years to make money for themselves. Co-operation with Novell, which puts out Suse; co-operation with Ubuntu; now their own Debian system. It is probably a simple matter of Linux users having grown to a large enough number for Microsoft to see it as a viable market that they want a piece of or perhaps even hope to take over entirely. Either way, they see an opportunity to make money.

[hitest]

Originally Posted by J65nko

And hell has frozen over

Indeed! This really is a WTF moment. We live during interesting times.

[Maxnix]

"If you can't beat them, join them". Or, at least, (and being Microsoft, more realistically) "use them"...

[Carpetsmoker]

Originally Posted by sacerdos_daemonis

It is also possible they see the value of using the work volunteers and companies have done over the years to make money for themselves. Co-operation with Novell, which puts out Suse; co-operation with Ubuntu; now their own Debian system. It is probably a simple matter of Linux users having grown to a large enough number for Microsoft to see it as a viable market that they want a piece of or perhaps even hope to take over entirely. Either way, they see an opportunity to make money.

Plus, Bill Gates isn't part of the company any more, and neither is Steve "Linux is cancer" Balmer (after almost 15 years, I still can't get over the incredible insulting wrongness of that comment btw, both for people spending their free time developing software, as for cancer patients).

New people replaced them. New people with different, less extreme, ideas it seems ...

[sacerdos_daemonis]

A change in leadership is probably one factor in Microsoft's new direction. It is also highly probable "If you cannot beat them, join them" is another. I was going to include that in my previous post, but could not work it in without making the post a garbled mess. Basically, with or without new management, they have realised Linux is not going away and have decided to work with it. The question is, is their goal co-operation or expansion/control? (Although it may be a moot point, since Linux has already come under the "influence" of corporate interests. Microsoft will just be another.)