Microsoft open sources .NET, takes it to Linux and OS X
NEW YORK—Earlier this year, Microsoft open sourced a big chunk of .NET, publishing its new compiler, Roslyn, and many .NET libraries under the Apache license. Today, the company took that same open sourcing effort a great deal further. Microsoft announced that its full server .NET stack, including the just-in-time compiler and runtime and the core class libraries that all .NET software depends on, will all be open sourced.
The code will be hosted on GitHub and published under a permissive MIT-style license.
With this release, Microsoft wants to make sure that the .NET stack is fully functional and production quality on both Linux and OS X. The company is working with the Mono community to make sure that this platform is “enterprise-ready.”
Microsoft Open Sources .NET, Saying It Will Run on Linux and Mac
Satya Nadella’s rapid reinvention of Microsoft continues.
In yet another bid to make up lost ground in the long march to the future of computing, Microsoft is now open sourcing the very foundation of .NET—the software that millions of developers use to build and operate websites and other large online applications—and it says this free code will eventually run not only on computer servers that use its own Windows operating system, but also atop machines equipped with Linux or Apple’s Mac OS, Microsoft’s two main operating system rivals.
“We want to have a developer offering that is relevant and attractive and valuable to any developer working on any kind of application,” says S. “Soma” Somasegar, the 25-year Microsoft veteran oversees the company’s wide range of tools for software developers.