Microsoft's drivers, which help Linux virtual machines run better under its own Hyper-V virtualization software, are already available for enterprises to add as a patch, and will be available in several months via the next major update of the Linux kernel, Kroah-Hartman said.

"This shows that their customers have been asking to run Linux," he said.

It also shows, in a , Microsoft's head of open-source strategy, that the company is not trying to undermine Linux or bolster its 2006 claim that Linux violated its patents.

"Our use of the GPL v2.0 license, as requested by the Linux community, means we will not charge a royalty or assert any patents covering the driver code we are contributing," he wrote.

Others, however, were more cynical.