Microsoft has undergone a startling transformation. It was once the undisputed king of desktops, servers, and business applications. It was also a knives-out competitor that built—and then tried to protect—a monopoly chokehold on the IT and consumer markets.

These days, thanks in part to the rise of cloud and mobile devices, anti-trust rulings, and a robust open-source movement that found inspiration in its role as the Rebel Alliance, Microsoft is a much different organization.

It’s still a multi-billion dollar company, and force to be reckoned with for business tools and email. But it’s second fiddle in server virtualization and IaaS, and nearly invisible in the vast consumer mobile market.

From this humbler position, Microsoft has learned what its competitors learned a long time ago: there’s value to be had in open source, not only as a consumer but as a contributor.

Today on the Datanauts, we’re joined by Melissa Wright (aka vMiss on your favorite social network), a technical marketing engineer, VCDX, and Creative Director at Virtual Design Master, to talk about why Microsoft is embracing open source, and how the company is going about it.

In particular we focus on the Microsoft and Docker partnership, PowerShell going open source, and Microsoft becoming a platinum member of the Linux Foundation.

You can follow Melissa on Twitter and check out her blog at vMiss.net.

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Show Links:

Docker And Microsoft – Docker

PowerShell is open sourced and is available on Linux – Microsoft Azure Blog

Microsoft Fortifies Commitment to Open Source, Becomes Linux Foundation Platinum Member – Linux Foundation