Before Microsoft acquired LinkedIn, the company was very much interested in Open Source and has been developing its technology to focus in that direction. One might believe that due to the software giant now taking control of the company, LinkedIn would end its Open Source, but such is not the case.
During a recent Q&A, Igor Perisic, the vice president of engineering at LinkedIn, made it clear that nothing will change despite the Microsoft acquisition. Everything will continue to go on as planned, and we view that as a good thing. Furthermore, Perisic also explained why developing open source technologies are so important.
Here’s a snippet of what he had to say during the Q&A:
The rationale and how it became important to our culture at LinkedIn is that we have built solutions that leveraged open-source technology very early on. The whole field of engineering and the way that we think about it is that it comes down to craftsmanship. And if you believe in craftsmanship, that means that you are periodically and constantly updating and upgrading your know-how. That should mean you’re also looking at what is happening in the open-source community in a lot of domains.
Due to Microsoft’s recent moves into the world of open source, we doubt the company will be bothered by what LinkedIn is doing. In fact, Microsoft would likely embrace it with open arms. This is a different Microsoft from 10-years ago, but one cannot forget the many anti-open source sentiments the company has made, and as such, folks have good reasons to be wary.
Still, we do believe Microsoft will continue to impress when it comes down to open source, but the stigma it carries may never go away.
