Microsoft made a surprising announcement yesterday when they said that they would increase their contributions to the Linux kernel. The company admitted that it's been using a heavily modified Linux kernel for years, although it's a very old version.

It's common knowledge that Microsoft is a contributor to the Linux kernel and up until a few years ago it was one of the top ones. Their input on the Linux kernel has been reduced since then, but now they intend to put more effort into it.

When asked about the reason for this sudden interest in the Linux kernel, a Microsoft spokesperson admitted that they have been using a modified Linux kernel for years. Apparently, their team failed to make some important adjustments to their kernel, and they had to make the switch.

Disguising the kernel was harder than implementing it

It turns out that disguising the Linux kernel to masquerade as their work was much harder that the actual implementation. Microsoft had to hire a new team just for this task alone, which might seem redundant.

"The kernel team here at Microsoft is a small one and we just couldn't keep up with all the drivers and improvements that needed to be made. There are thousands of people contributing to the Linux kernel and we just can't compete with that. We've been using the Linux kernel for a long time so now it's time to give something back," said a Microsoft spokesperson.

The reason for this sudden onset of sincerity seems to be the fact that the Windows sales are dropping and they can't keep a large team of programmers on the payroll that have only one job, to hide the fact that they are using the Linux kernel.

Also, Microsoft is finally considering upgrading to version 2.6.32.65 of the kernel, but they didn't want to say which version they had been using so far.

UPDATE

This was published on April 1, as an April Fools joke.