Microsoft joins the Linux Foundation, welcomes Google to .NET community

Alongside a number of big Visual Studio announcements at its Connect 2016 developer conference, Microsoft also took the stage to announce that it is further embracing the open source community by joining the Linux Foundation as a platinum member. In addition, Microsoft also revealed that Google has joined on with the independent .NET Foundation.

According to Microsoft, joining the Linux Foundation will help to bring more innovation to its customers. From Microsoft:

As part of its effort to work more closely with the open source community, Microsoft on Wednesday announced it has joined the Linux Foundation as a Platinum Member. Microsoft's membership in the Linux Foundation will benefit customers through increased collaboration and innovation among a diverse ecosystem."By becoming a Linux Foundation Platinum member, Microsoft is better able to collaborate with the open source community to deliver transformative mobile and cloud experiences to more people," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation. "Microsoft has been a key contributor to many projects, and we see the company intensifying its involvement and commitment to open development."

This is just the latest move in a recent effort by Microsoft to further embrace the open source community. The company has even open sourced some of its own projects recently, including the .NET framework and the Xamarin SDK, among others. Microsoft also already contributes to a number of Linux Foundation projects, including Node.js Foundation, OpenDaylight, Open Container Initiative, R Consortium and Open API Initiative.

Lastly, in addition to Google joining the .NET Foundation, Microsoft also revealed that Samsung will release a preview version of its Visual Studio tools for Tizen OS on Wednesday.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl