Dive Brief:
- Microsoft announced Tuesday that it has joined the Eclipse Foundation, a group dedicated to open-source software.
- The news comes the same week that the company announced it would make its database software available for Linux systems for the first time.
- IBM launched the Eclipse Project 14 years ago, dedicated to using and growing open-source software. Three years later, the Eclipse effort became a multi-vendor foundation, with members like Google, SAP and Oracle.
Dive Insight:
Microsoft’s relationship with the open-source communities has historically been rocky. But as the company began growing Azure, it became much more willing to work with open source vendors.
The company has worked to diversify its offerings as desktop computers and traditional software have been replaced by smartphones and cloud-based services. Windows, once the company’s biggest money maker, now brings in just over 10% of the company’s revenues.
"By joining the Eclipse Foundation and open-sourcing Team Explorer Everywhere, Microsoft continues its commitment to support any developer, any language and any platform," Microsoft said in a blog post.
On Monday, Microsoft announced that it will soon make its database software available for Linux systems for the first time in order to both improve sales of databases and better compete with Oracle. According to IDC, Oracle currently has twice the market share of Microsoft's existing database customers.
