Microsoft has made good on a pledge it made back in November 2014 to open-source the core parts of its .NET framework and its cousin, the web-focused ASP.NET Core. The two products have now hit general availability with the release of versions 1.0 on Linux, Windows and MacOS.

According to Microsoft, which made the announcement at the Red Hat Summit 2016, more than 18,000 developers from 1,300 companies have helped contribute to .NET Core 1.0, the open-source project that encompasses both products. The company said the new version also includes the first release of .NET Standard Library, which makes it easier for developers to “reuse their code and skills for applications that run on servers, the cloud, desktops and across any device including Windows, iOS and Android.”

Red Hat Inc. becomes the first Linux vendor to support .NET Core on its flagship Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) distribution, and also on OpenShift, the firm’s Platform-as-a-Service solution based on the Docker and Kubernetes container technologies. According to Red Hat, the availability of .NET Core on RHEL means that it’s now possible for enterprises to run microservices-based apps that include components of both .NET and Java, on the same platform. In addition, new apps written for .NET core will also be able to run on RHEL and Windows Server.

Red Hat isn’t the only Linux distro planning to support .NET Core. Microsoft says the platform will also be available for CentOS, Debian and Ubuntu “soon”, though RHEL is the first and currently only Linux distribution to support it.

Besides announcing .NET Core 1.0, Microsoft revealed that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., is to join the .NET Foundation Steering Committee.

Microsoft had a few other announcements at Red Hat Summit, saying its involved in a three-way collaboration with the Linux vendor and a startup called CodeEnvy Inc. to make the protocol that enables Visual Studio Code editor to support over 100 programming languages available to others. What this means is that “any developer can have a consistent, productive editing experience for their favorite programming language on any tool — even if that tool isn’t Visual Studio Code,” said Joseph Sirosh, Corporate VP for Microsoft’s Data Group.

Microsoft is also showing off a few of its other open-source technologies at Red Hat Summit, with the highlight being a demo of SQL Server 2016 running on RHEL.

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