It was unthinkable that software giant Microsoft under Steve Ballmer who equated Linux with cancer would openly court the open source crowd. Since then the tech giant has made some rather significant changes, including porting its dot.net frame to linux.
Microsoft has now unveiled a version of its flagship database program, Microsoft SQL Server, for Linux. Read that again, you can now run a major data centre app without even touching windows. To make matters better, Microsoft is working with key Linux distributors, including Red Hat and Ubuntu maker Canonical, to get SQL Server chugging smoothly in the Martian terrain that is Linux.
Unfortunately, for regular users SQL Server for Linux will not ship until Mid-2017, however companies that want a sneak preview of the goodies can get it right now.
Under Satya Nadella, Microsoft has changed its posture towards other competing operating systems, who was quick to acknowledge that its operating system was no longer the king of the software ecosystem.
Not only is Microsoft’s Azure cloud service explicitly Linux-friendly, but many of its apps are first released on Android before they continue their journey to other platforms such as Windows phones or iOS.
As the New York Times has reported, this could fall within the realm of marketing strategy under "market expansion."
In strategic terms Microsoft may have decided that given the fact that the server space is leaning towards the Linux camp, by opening up a route it could corner some of that server space with its popular SQL Server instead of being rigid and insisting on a Windows-only policy.
Although it is too early to tell whether the Linux crowd will accept Microsoft’s act of gulping down its erstwhile stubborn pride and warm up to a one time arch rival, but the more open minded in that crowd could capitalize on the benefits of Microsoft’s SQL Servers without committing to a wholesale switch of operating system.
Microsoft has now unveiled a version of its flagship database program, Microsoft SQL Server, for Linux. Read that again, you can now run a major data centre app without even touching windows. To make matters better, Microsoft is working with key Linux distributors, including Red Hat and Ubuntu maker Canonical, to get SQL Server chugging smoothly in the Martian terrain that is Linux.
Unfortunately, for regular users SQL Server for Linux will not ship until Mid-2017, however companies that want a sneak preview of the goodies can get it right now.
Under Satya Nadella, Microsoft has changed its posture towards other competing operating systems, who was quick to acknowledge that its operating system was no longer the king of the software ecosystem.
Not only is Microsoft’s Azure cloud service explicitly Linux-friendly, but many of its apps are first released on Android before they continue their journey to other platforms such as Windows phones or iOS.
As the New York Times has reported, this could fall within the realm of marketing strategy under "market expansion."
In strategic terms Microsoft may have decided that given the fact that the server space is leaning towards the Linux camp, by opening up a route it could corner some of that server space with its popular SQL Server instead of being rigid and insisting on a Windows-only policy.
Although it is too early to tell whether the Linux crowd will accept Microsoft’s act of gulping down its erstwhile stubborn pride and warm up to a one time arch rival, but the more open minded in that crowd could capitalize on the benefits of Microsoft’s SQL Servers without committing to a wholesale switch of operating system.