The Linux kernel will be powering Microsoft's second generation Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). The first generation WSL contains a partial re-implementation of the Linux kernel API that uses the Windows NT kernel to perform its functionality. In choosing this approach, Microsoft avoided using any actual Linux code, and hence the company avoided the GPL license with its "viral" stipulations that would have arguably forced Microsoft to open source WSL and perhaps even parts of Windows itself.

No less significant is the Windows Terminal project. Many Windows users will know that Windows' command-line programs depend on a process named conhost.exe that's responsible for drawing the command-line windows. As part of Windows Terminal, Microsoft has published the source to conhost.exe. This is an important (albeit uninteresting) part of Windows itself, and Microsoft has published it using the permissive MIT license. This is, I think, unprecedented. While Microsoft has open sourced Windows utilities such as Calculator, this represents the first time that the company has published core Windows code—and with an open source license to boot.

The Windows Terminal project is similarly permissively licensed. While it's branded an early alpha release at present, once it stabilizes and has a solid feature set, it's likely to be integrated into Windows itself and to ship as a standard Windows component. Just as with the publishing of conhost.exe, this too represents something of a first: a (new) core Windows component that's developed as open source.

Microsoft has changed. It's not the company it once was. Open source is no longer the enemy—it's now something that has a role across the entire company. And open source is not just for discrete, standalone applications; it's now a viable building block for core Windows features.