Linus Torvalds is not worried that Microsoft will control Linux

Microsoft’s efforts in Linux in recent years can be said to be spared. The launch of WSL, the launch of the Linux version of Edge and the open exFAT patented technology into Linux and other operations make people feel that it really loves Linux. But it seems that Microsoft is only adopting the old “embrace, expand and then eliminate” strategy, and some people think it will eventually take over Linux. At the 2019 Linux Plumbers Conference, ZDNet contributing editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols spoke with Linus Torvalds and several other top Linux kernel programmers who generally agreed that Microsoft wanted to control Linux, but they were not worried.

The main reason for not worrying is that the nature of Linux, coupled with the GPL2 open source license on which it is based, makes Linux uncontrollable by any third party.

“The whole anti-Microsoft thing was sometimes funny as a joke, but not really. Today, they’re actually much friendlier. I talk to Microsoft engineers at various conferences, and I feel like, yes, they have changed, and the engineers are happy. And they’re like really happy working on Linux. So I completely dismissed all the anti-Microsoft stuff.”

For Microsoft, the main reason is that “Microsoft tends to be mainly about Azure and doing all the stuff to make Linux work well for them.” Linus explained and stressed that this is normal: “I mean, that’s just being part of the community.”

Source: ZDNet