Microsoft and its flagship Windows OS have a troubled history with Linux and open source. When Bill Gates penned his ‘Open Letter to Hobbyists’ in 1976, he complained about the rampant software piracy taking place in early hobbyist communities – particularly that of the Altair Basic interpreter, which he’d co-created. At a time before open source initiatives like the GNU and Linux projects, his opinion was clear: “Are people who copy software any different than those who copy
