Former Microsoft CEO might have labeled Linux "a cancer" 15 years ago, but things couldn't be any different this week. Microsoft, the software giant that has built its empire on closed-source proprietary software, is joining the Linux Foundation. 10 years ago that would have seemed unimaginable, but Microsoft has been steadily embracing open source recently, leading it to become the top organization with the most open source contributors on Github.

As Ars Technica notes, Microsoft has been contributing to Linux for several years now, and Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, welcomes the company joining the foundation. "Microsoft is better able to collaborate with the open source community to deliver transformative mobile and cloud experiences to more people."

Microsoft has been steadily embracing open source recently

Microsoft has truly embraced Satya Nadella's culture change at the company, and the software maker has open sourced PowerShell, Visual Studio Code, and Microsoft Edge's JavaScript engine recently. Microsoft also partnered with Canonical to bring Ubuntu to Windows 10, and acquired Xamarin to aid mobile app development. Microsoft even open sourced Xamarin's SDKs and developer tools, and brought SQL Server to Linux.

Alongside Microsoft's Linux Foundation membership, Google is also making its own surprising news. Google is joining the .NET Foundation, which oversees .NET Platform programming languages that form part of Microsoft's major competitor to Java and Android. While Google hasn't shown much interest in supporting .NET or providing apps for Microsoft's new UWP platform, it's planning to support .NET in the Google Cloud Platform.

Microsoft's open source news arrives alongside a Visual Studio for Mac release. Microsoft accidentally revealed the software earlier this week, and it's built on top of Xamarin Studio that the company acquired earlier this year. Windows and Mac developers will be able to share and contribute to the same projects with the new software.