Open Source Windows? Could Microsoft one day open source Windows? At the annual ChefConf conference, panel moderator and Wired editor Cade Metz asked Azure CTO Mark Russinovich exactly that. The audience naturally applauded the question enthusiastically before he even answered. To everyone's surprise, the Microsoft executive answered in the affirmative.
“It’s definitely possible,” Russinovich said, according to TechFlash. “It’s a new Microsoft. We’re literally having every conversation you can imagine about the future of our software: open, non-open, services.”
We don't know exactly how the question was phrased, but the idea that Microsoft might one day release an open source operating system, or at least a part of its operating system, is not as unlikely as it seemed a few years ago.
Microsoft seems to be steadily making more and more open source projects , and has more than 1,000 software repositories on GitHub. The company's biggest announcement was that it not only plans to open source .NET, the software that powers Windows, but also plans to make it cross-platform for Mac and Linux.
For now at least, Microsoft won't make Windows open-source. The company simply seems to acknowledge that it's an option, and that in itself is a huge step, since until recently it seemed like a science fiction scenario.
Open-source software is often closely associated with free software, but that's not always the case, nor is it required. Microsoft could one day make Windows free and focus on other parts of the company.
In fact, many believe the company is moving in that direction anyway. The company has already promised free upgrades to Windows 10 for a year to those who purchased Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1.
The company is offering free copies even to pirates, although it will not support them. We certainly don't know what will happen in the future, but the company's statements and commitments show that this is truly a new Microsoft.
