After Google announced the arrival of it’s open source Chrome OS, things are looking quite bright for the open source community. Though Chrome OS would be an excellent competitor not only for existing Linux distributions but also for the upcoming Windows 7, there are many reasons why Microsoft may not worry about the Chrome OS

However, it seems Microsoft is also trying to extend more support to the open source community. Recently, Microsoft released 20,000 lines of Linux code [LOC] to the Kernel community.Below are some of the highlights of the Microsoft release[received via an email from Microsoft's PR group]

• Microsoft has released 20,000 lines of Linux code to the Linux kernel community. The code, which includes three Linux device drivers will be available to the Linux Community and customers alike, and will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008.
• In addition to this significant code contribution, Microsoft is also highlighting the ongoing investment the company is making to optimize PHP on Windows Server and the Microsoft SQL Server database system. For additional context regarding Microsoft’s ongoing work with PHP and the Microsoft SQL Server driver for PHP available to support more native features in Microsoft SQL Server 2008, please see the IDC white paper–Microsoft, PHP & Open Source, a Pragmatic Alliance for more information.
• These milestones and the motivation behind the work is simple – Microsoft is committed to ensuring interoperability between the Microsoft technology and open source technology to provide the choices our customers are asking for.

Though 20,000 LOC is not a very huge number [considering Microsoft's size], it is good to see Microsoft embracing the open source technology You can read more about it here