Oracle's "Mr. Linux" Moves to Microsoft: What It Means for the Channel

A chief motivation for Microsoft in moving more boldly into the open source space is to compete with Oracle. That was the takeaway from the recent announcement of support for Microsoft SQL Server on GNU/Linux. Poaching an Oracle executive makes it even clearer that stealing open source market share from Oracle is a priority for Microsoft.

Microsoft’s main focus remains on the open source cloud — as opposed to, say, the desktop or mobile devices. That’s why it has added new open source options to the Azure cloud. True, the company threw a bone to the GNU/Linux desktop community by releasing Windows Subsystem for Linux recently, but Microsoft’s only serious engagement with open source remains in the enterprise cloud — the area Coekaerts will oversee.

Microsoft’s PR relating to open source is being carefully managed. It’s interesting that the company has made much of its new open source product announcements in recent months, yet it kept news of Coekaerts’s appointment quiet until the press discovered it on its own. That could mean lots of different things, but perhaps it’s a sign that Microsoft wants to keep its anti-Oracle campaign out of the spotlight — even though it is eager to draw attention to its open source announcements in general.