In a move it describes as "maximising its investment in Linux", Yahoo! has become a silver level member of the Linux Foundation. This sees Yahoo! pay the Linux Foundation fees of between $5,000 and $20,000 per year, though closer to the latter as the rate is dependent on the number of employees. The Foundation describes Yahoo! as a major enterprise Linux user, using Linux as an integral part of its technical and developer infrastructure. In its early years, Yahoo! was known as a stronghold for FreeBSD and their endorsement being the lead article in issue 1 of FreeBSD News, but over the last decade they have gradually become less active in the FreeBSD community. The move to join the Linux Foundation may well mark the end of Yahoo!'s relationship with FreeBSD. Yahoo!'s CTO, Raymie Stata, said that the Foundation was host to a number of projects which were important to the company and that, in conjunction with the resources, tools and events, the Foundation offers would "allow us to maximise out investment in the platform". He added that the company was excited to "collaborate with the Linux Foundation and its peers to advance technologies that will help Linux achieve its promise" but he did not say what Yahoo! believed that promise to be. Yahoo! will at least bring expertise in cloud computing, through it's involvement and use of Hadoop, and in web technologies to the non-profit Linux Foundation. The Linux Foundation is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the task of promoting the growth of Linux. Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, is sponsored by the foundation. via H-Online