Microsoft has announced on its official website the availability on Linux of the progressive web application (PWA) of Teams, its collaborative communication application in SaaS mode. “We are pleased to announce the general availability of Microsoft Teams Progressive Web App support as a feature of our current web client for Linux customers,” said Product Marketing Manager.
Microsoft Teams is the all-in-one videoconferencing solution offered by the Redmond IT multinational known for its famous Windows operating system. It provides a workspace for real-time collaboration and communication, meetings, and file sharing. Linux customers who rely on Microsoft Teams for their collaboration and communication needs have expressed their desire to see the rich functionality of Teams available to their users in a secure way. It is now possible thanks to the PWA Teams.
Additionally, the PWA allows us to ship the latest Microsoft Teams features to our Linux customers faster and helps us bridge the gap between the Teams desktop client on Linux and Windows. The PWA experience is available for Edge and Chrome browsers running on Linux.
A progressive web app or progressive web application in French is a web application that consists of web pages and which can appear to the user in the same way as native applications or mobile applications. This type of applications tries to combine the features offered by most modern browsers with the advantages of the experience offered by mobile devices.
A PWA is consulted like a classic website, from a secure URL but allows a user experience similar to that of a mobile application, without the constraints of the latter (submission to App-Stores, significant use of the device’s memory) . They offer to combine speed, fluidity and lightness while considerably limiting development costs: no need to carry out specific developments for applications according to each platform: iOS, Android and many others.
The PWA provides access to more features, including custom backgrounds, gallery view, reactions, raise hand function in meetings, as well as large gallery mode views. The PWA also offers desktop-like app features, such as system notifications for chat and channels, a dock icon with respective controls, app auto-start, and easy access to system app permissions.
The Microsoft Teams PWA for Linux can be used with a Conditional Access configuration, enforced through Endpoint Manager, to allow Linux users to securely access the Teams web application while using a browser. This enables organizations to use a unified endpoint management solution for Teams from Linux endpoints with built-in security and quality.
Microsoft and Linux: a common expression
Microsoft is a member not only of the Linux Foundation, but also of the Linux Kernel Security mailing list (a rather selective community). Microsoft submits patches to the Linux kernel to create a complete virtualization stack with Linux and the Microsoft hypervisor. And when Microsoft wanted to add support for Windows containers, it chose an open-source specification originally designed for Linux rather than the in-house Windows-centric implementation it had already written.
Today, Azure customers get the same hybrid benefits for Linux support contracts as they do for Windows Server licenses; Windows runs Linux binaries; some key Microsoft applications are available on Linux; and new services could be built with Linux. It’s not just about the most obvious services, like the Azure Kubernetes service: Microsoft Tunnel – the VPN replacement for iOS and Android apps that connect to on-premises company resources via Azure AD – installs in as a Docker container on a Linux server.
At Azure Open Day, Brendan Burns, co-founder of Kubernetes and vice president of Microsoft, explained that Microsoft has deep knowledge of Linux and contributes to existing open source projects based on Linux, while creating new ones, such as Dapr (Distributed Application Runtime).
Azure can provide best-in-class support for Linux and container infrastructure and I think that’s because we have a deep understanding of what it takes to run Linux in a hyperscale cloud,” Burns said. “We have a deep understanding and commitment to the Linux and container communities. We contribute source code to all of these environments.”
But forget about throwing away the Windows kernel and replacing it with a Linux kernel, because Microsoft’s approach to Linux is much more pragmatic and comprehensive. Although the company is now fully cross-platform, not all applications will transition to or take advantage of Linux. Instead, Microsoft embraces or supports Linux when customers are there, or when it wants to leverage the ecosystem with open-source projects.
Source: Microsoft
And you?
What is your opinion on the subject?
In view of the above, can we safely say that Microsoft likes Linux?
See as well :
GNOME is the winner of Microsoft’s FOSS Fund, the open source project will receive $10,000 from Microsoft, conspiracy, takeover, generosity, or simply meritocracy?
The Curl project, command-line interface, is the winner of Microsoft’s FOSS Fund, the open source project will receive $10,000 from Microsoft