Discussing Microsoft’s Openness at Linux Tag

LinuxTag is the leading meeting place for Linux and open source in Europe. Held in Berlin last week it was the place to learn about new innovations and trends, as well as to connect with core expertise for professional users, decision makers, developers, beginners and of course the community. I was lucky enough to attend in support of Microsoft Deutschland.

I spent the majority of the four days discussing and demonstrating the depth and breadth of Microsoft’s engagement in open source and open standards. As I assist the efforts at Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc. (MS Open Tech) – who are proud to support Microsoft Corporation’s commitment to openness – it’s always a joy because it’s such a positive story. This is particularly true at large events like LinuxTag where it is impossible to predict who we will be talking to next. It is a great feeling to be able to point to concrete contributions that MS Open Tech has made, and continue to make, to projects relevant to almost any individuals interests.

Even more pleasing is the obvious desire of the key open source community members to work with us. A significant number of visitors to our stand were keen to understand how they can work with Microsoft to ensure interoperability between solutions. That’s an important reason why MS Open Tech exists, and why we were at LinuxTag.

Many visitors wanted to see how the VM Depot site could help their projects. VM Depot is a site on which the community can publish freely redistributable virtual machine images for Windows Azure. Once I’d explained how it worked, it was common for community leaders and core developers to have clearly identified significant value for their projects. In some cases they saw it as an opportunity to increase the visibility of their open source products, in others as an opportunity to provide evaluation installs, and in others it was an opportunity to empower their development community.

My thanks go to all the team at Microsoft Deutschland and LinuxTag for making it possible to meet so many great open source leaders in such a short time. We look forward to continuing the conversations.