Twenty thousand lines of device driver code, contributed under the GPL v2

Each year we do something around OSCON that brings us a step closer to delivering on the interop commitments that we have made to the wider IT community.

This year’s Day One announcement is that we’re contributing twenty thousand lines of device driver code to the Linux kernel community for inclusion in the Linux tree, and doing so under GPL v2.

Peter Galli was the first to talk about it over on Port 25:

The drivers will be available to both the Linux community and customers, and will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V or Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.

In an article posted to Microsoft’s PressPass site, Tom Hanrahan, director of Microsoft’s Open Source Technology Center, notes that this is a significant milestone because it’s the first time the company has released code directly to the Linux community. "Additionally significant is that we are releasing the code under the GPLv2 license, which is the Linux community’s preferred license," he said.

… and Hank Janssen followed with another post on Port 25, where he included the following bullets;

• Yes, our device driver code was released directly to the Linux Kernel
• We released the code under GPL v2
• We are working with Greg Kroah-Hartman so it is ready for the next release of the Linux Kernel, version 2.6.32
• We will continue to update the driver code to enhance interoperability on an ongoing basis, but it’s our hope that other developers in the community will find the code useful and worthy of collaboration.

Microsoft developed the Linux device drivers  to enhance the performance of Linux when virtualized on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V.  My team and I were responsible for testing and validating the driver components that were contributed for this first release. 

The commentary I have seen so far has been factual and positive.

Todd Bishop has an FAQ with Greg Kroah-Hartman, good answers to questions I know some of you will be asking;

Where the Microsoft code will fit in: "We include all drivers into the main kernel source tree. So you don’t go and download external drivers somewhere, it just all comes included. Now, when you build it, you select all these different options on what you want built and what you don’t want built. Distributions build everything as a loadable module, so that it doesn’t take up any space in your memory, unless you want to use it, unless you have that specific piece of hardware. So in this case, if you happen to want to run Linux on top of (Microsoft) Hyper-V, you just will load these modules and away you go."

John Fontana over at Network World has a fun quote from Jim Zemlin;

"Obviously we are tickled about it," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. "Hell has frozen over, the seas have parted," he said with a chuckle.

And finally Ina Fried has her usual comprehensive view of what this is all about for Microsoft and for Linux;

Although Microsoft has released open-source code in the past, the company has generally favored licenses other than the GPL. That said, the GPL is the way into the Linux kernel and Microsoft wants this code in Linux.

In an article on its press Web site, Microsoft acknowledged the departure. The company has also been going after Linux for years, both on the marketing and legal fronts.

"Today, in a break from the ordinary, Microsoft released 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux community," Microsoft said. "The code, which includes three Linux device drivers, has been submitted to the Linux kernel community for inclusion in the Linux tree."

The move comes at a time of mixed signals from Redmond when it comes to Linux. Microsoft has said that the browser-based versions of Office, which are due out next year as part of Office 2010, will support Firefox, bringing at least a portion of Office to Linux for the first time.

Personally, I don’t think our signals over the last few years as being the least bit mixed, a commitment to interoperability is just an issue of the market realties and customer demands of today vs. a decade ago.

Can I say, “I’m still a believer”?