If you know Microsoft and its long history, this rather straightforward sentence reads almost like a paradox. It invites you to read it again—just to make sure it says what you think it said. Really, go ahead. Read it again.

For years, Microsoft actively worked to suppress Linux, a computer operating system whose underlying code is freely available to the world at large. It once threatened legal action against businesses that used the open source OS, insisting that Linux infringed on patents underpinning its flagship Windows operating system. And though the company has come to realize that Linux is now one of the primary means of building large online systems—and that it won't survive unless it helps businesses use the OS in this way—it continues to push Windows as a viable alternative. At first blush, a Microsoft Linux still seems a strange (and slightly amusing) thing.