OStatic

In a move that marks a notable shift for Microsoft, the company has announced that it has released 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux community. The code includes three Linux device drivers, and has been submitted to the Linux kernel community for inclusion in the Linux tree. The drivers will be available to the Linux community and customers alike, and will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V or Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, company officials said in a statement.

Sam Ramji, Microsoft's open source czar, commented on the move in an interview posted on Microsoft's site. Today?s release would have been unheard of from Microsoft a few years ago, he said but it?s a prime example that customer demand is a powerful catalyst for change. It's a smart, long overdue play from the company.

I've been doing some thinking since writing about kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman's statement that Linux supports more devices than any other operating system. Readers made some good comments, and after some time spent wrestling with my (yes, supported) webcam, I can venture an additional suggestion as to why it doesn't always seem that way, beyond Kroah-Hartman's theory of a non-supported device becoming personal.

In the case of my webcam, and in the case of one commenter, it seems the problem isn't necessarily the device driver. At lower levels, the drivers work. It's the layers of programming, interaction, and demand piled on the driver that makes the device feel broken. It is difficult to tell for sure, though, exactly what is causing that break.

On the O'Reilly Media site, there is an intriguing interview with kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman. Kroah-Hartman says he has evidence that Linux now supports more devices than any other operating system.

In the lengthy interview, he talks about why this is true now, and how hardware suppliers and open source developers can work together to bring more peripherals to life.

On Friday, Linux kernel 2.6.27 was released, introducing a number of new features and enhancements. Most notably, this release incorporates fully the (now infamous) patched Intel e1000e driver.

However, there are several other interesting and welcome additions to this kernel release.