If you've been following along in recent years, the release isn't that much of a shock. Microsoft has been much more willing to support competing operating systems under CEO Satya Nadella, who was quick to acknowledge that Windows was no longer the center of the computing universe. Its Azure cloud service is explicitly Linux-friendly, for example, and many of Microsoft's mobile apps arrive on Android (itself Linux-based) and iOS before they reach Windows phones.

As the executive tells the New York Times, this is all about "market expansion." Microsoft would rather corner the server software space, which has been shifting toward Linux, than insist on a Windows-only policy out of stubborn pride. It's tough to know if the Linux server crowd will warm up to its longtime arch-rival, but those more open-minded firms are now free to integrate Microsoft without making a wholesale switch.