Facebook has signaled its long-running support for open source software by signing up to the largest Linux organisational body around.
The social network has revealed it has joined The Linux Foundation as a platinum member, meaning it will take a leading role in helping shape the future of the software platform going forward.
The Linux Foundation looks to promote the spread of open-source ecosystems through training and awareness programs, and claims to be currently heading up $16 billion worth of projects.
Facebook Linux
“From its efforts to reshape computing through open source to its aggressive push to increase internet connectivity around the world, Facebook is a leader in open innovation,” a Linux Foundation blog announcing the news said.
“Perhaps more important today than ever, Facebook’s focus on democratizing access to technology enhances opportunity and scale for individuals and businesses alike. That’s why we’re so excited to announce the company is joining the Linux Foundation at the highest level.”
Facebook has long relied upon both Linux and other open-source software platforms, playing a major role in contributing to open-source projects such as the Open Compute Project and the React JavaScript library.
It also has a number of major ongoing open-source projects, including the Deepfake Detection Challenge to spot fake videos, the Data for Good program, which looks to use data sharing to solve humanitarian issues including the spread of coronavirus, and the open-source Telecom Infra Project (TIP) Foundation, which looks to spread reliable internet to previously underserved populations.
Recently, the company relinquished control of its popular PyTorch open-source machine learning library for Windows 10 Linux systems back to Microsoft, which lets developers harness Python-powered machine-learning tools.
As well as helping developers create and evolve AI learning models, PyTorch, which was launched by the social network back in 2017, before being open-sourced a year later, played a central role in many Facebook services, with use cases such as language translation and dynamic graphs.
Via ZDNet
