Microsoft joins The Linux Foundation as a Platinum member

Microsoft today announced that the software giant is joining The Linux Foundation at its Connect(); 2016 developer event. The latest announcement is part of Microsoft’s aim to work closely with the open source community, which has been the main focus in many of its developer-focused events recently. Additionally, Microsoft is also the leading open source contributor on GitHub, ahead of Google and Facebook. Microsoft will be joining Cisco, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Huawei, IBM, Intel, NEC, Oracle, Qualcomm, and Samsung on The Linux Foundation as a Platinum member.

Joining The Linux Foundation is quite a huge investment from Microsoft as companies need to pay $500,000 every year to become a Platinum member. Scott Guthrie, the Executive Vice President of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise Group stated:

“As a cloud platform company we aim to help developers achieve more using the platforms and languages they know.  The Linux Foundation is home not only to Linux, but many of the community’s most innovative open source projects. We are excited to join The Linux Foundation and partner with the community to help developers capitalize on the shift to intelligent cloud and mobile experiences.”

It is worth noting that Microsoft already contributes to several projects from the Linux Foundation, including Node.js Foundation, OpenDaylight, Open Container Initiative, R Consortium and Open API Initiative.