Worried by the increasing popularity of Linux, Microsoft is getting more involved in open source, offering the possibilities of joint development and testing with the movement. Microsoft may also be considering making portions of the OS open source as well. Its certainly believed by Josh Ledgard, a program manager on Microsoft's Visual Studio community team, that this is possible.
"It should be easy for teams here at Microsoft to develop extensions to their platforms and potentially pieces of the platforms with customers in an open/transparent fashion," he recently wrote.
However, many in the open source movement remain skeptical.