Microsoft headhunters seek Linux folk for secret open source unit

This is neither new nor a secret. I've worked with the Linux chaps at Microsoft in the UK on several occasions over the last year or two. This just shows the inevitable expansion of that team as the focus shifts to cloud rather than software.

if you cant beat them.....

join them.

Already had the interview experience :-)

They recently recruited the head of the Linux team at Oracle.

Old news.

They tried to ping me more then 3 years ago. At that point this was going on for at least 6 months (knowing when the "usual suspects" started there).

1. The window for "high level" is now pretty much closed - this "secret hiring" (quotes needed) is "hiring grunts"

2. It required moving to the drizzle. While moving out of the UK you may not really notice the difference, if I move somewhere, I will move to a place with better weather, not weather which is as bad if not worse.

It was fairly secret then. Now? Not so much. In fact - not at all.

meta operating system

Anybody can see that they have shifted the focus from wanting to own the PC operating system to owning your operating system (any) AND your data in azure....

Windows 11 will be an api shim over Linux.

API Shim

I would like that - it would mean that all laptop hardware would have a Linux driver that worked (or at least provided by the manufacturer, so could be improved on).

how practical would it be for Microsoft to provide an alternative mapping solution, and alternative Store, for Android? Could you strip out the contentious Google stuff and replace it with Microsoft stuff?

Change of attitude?

So does that mean we can expect an update to their Linux client for Skype sometime this year?

I'll not hold my breath.

Adopt, extend, destroy....

Microsoft has long had a history of adopting a technology, then extending the technology with proprietary stuff and trying to "own" the technology through extension.

I'd be very wary of getting in bed with Microsoft - the same company that has consistently used proprietary source code and patents to sue Linux rivals into paying it to allow them to continue.