Microsoft has come a long way in its effort to initially warm up to and later adopt open source software
During a talk at the Linux Foundation’s Open Source Leadership Summit (OSLS) here, two “Jeffs” from Microsoft — Jeff McAffer, director of the Open Source Programs Office at Microsoft, and Jeff Wilcox, principal engineer in Microsoft’s Open Source Programs Office — provided a bit of insight into how things are going as the software giant has scaled to such a large number of people not only dabbling in, but avidly contributing to open source projects.
But of course, it wasn’t always this way. Back in the days of Bill Gates and early Steve Ballmer, open source was a dirty word. In fact, it was tantamount to a disease at Microsoft.
Microsoft felt open source to be every bit of a threat as a debilitating illness. This point was made in more than a couple sessions at this year’s OSLS.
In 2015, Microsoft folded the MS OpenTech group back into the company because its role was no longer needed. And last year, Microsoft joined The Linux Foundation.
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