The latest step in Microsoft's (MSFT) cozying up to the open source world is the company's new partnership with Red Hat (RHT), which introduces Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as a native platform for hybrid cloud computing on Azure.

The deal, announced Nov. 4, is designed to "help customers embrace hybrid cloud computing by providing greater choice and flexibility," Red Hat said in a statement. In that sense, the company is pitching its collaboration with Microsoft as a move that promotes one of the core advantages of open source: choice and freedom from vendor lock-in. Those are not benefits that have traditionally been associated with Microsoft.

In addition to bringing official RHEL support to Microsoft's Azure cloud, the partnership includes support for managing cloud workloads on Azure via Red Hat CloudForms.

Last but not least, the companies say they are now collaborating on extending Microsoft's .NET software framework to Red Hat platforms. Their goal is to make RHEL "the primary development and reference operating system for .NET Core on Linux."

For the open source community, that's big news. .NET has long worked on Linux platforms, but because of the traditionally tense relationship between Microsoft and open source developers, the latter have tended to be queasy about making use of the Linux-friendly implementation of .NET, Mono.

Microsoft's shift in focus toward the cloud and away from the desktop and servers, the traditional center of confrontation with the open source community, heralds a new age for the company's relationship with the open source community. Now, even Red Hat and Microsoft can integrate core parts of their businesses, as they have done in this latest deal.