New Delhi: As Microsoft is celebrating its 40th anniversary today, we can't help but admire at the way the software giant has been able to establish its empire on Windows operating system that runs on many of the world's desktops, laptops, phones, and servers. Having enjoyed such a position in the consumer and business market, will it ever open its palms and let others leverage its potential of being the most-used OS for free? One of the company's top engineer says yes.
Mark Russinovich, one of Microsoft's top engineers said during the ChefConf conference that the company could open source the code that underpins the OS. A lot of companies as well as Microsoft customers are now relying on open source code and Microsoft should embrace the change as well.
A report on Wired noted that Microsoft now allows Linux on its Azure cloud computing service, a way of renting computers over the internet, and today, Linux is running on at least 20 percent of those computers. It is already a shift for Microsoft who's been the bete noir of the open source community. Given the popularity that Linux is enjoying, Microsoft could think of the possibility of going further by actually turning its iconic Windows into an open source software.
Earlier this year, Microsoft open-sourced its .NET tool and it is expected that the company will expand its reach. Russinovich says that this will help Microsoft sell other stuff, including cloud computing services such Microsoft Azure and all sorts of other apps and services that run atop the world's operating systems.
Even if the Microsoft-owned Windows OS goes open-source, it will maximise its use while keeping the software giant as the money maker as Windows code would be freely available, but so many of the world's businesses would still need a vendor who can package, distribute, and update the OS.
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