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Microsoft to Support Linux in Virtual Server

Posted by Zonk on from the he-done-said-a-nice-thing-about-linux dept.

zaxios writes "Techworld is reporting that Microsoft has announced support for running Linux on their virtualization software, Virtual Server 2005. From the article: '[Microsoft] can't compete against VMware without support for other operating systems.' Perhaps the significance of this is that Microsoft has acknowledged Linux as an OS people might want to use, which seems an upgrade from its previous status as a communist cancer."

2 of 399 comments (clear)

  1. This is cool by CDarklock · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now that Microsoft has given the thumbs up to Linux on Virtual PC, I can slaughter one of the big objections people have to moving web servers off Windows: the developers don't have a Linux box on their desktop. Now they can install Virtual PC and set up a test environment there, which kills the problem and might get some Windows web servers off the net.

    Not that I have a problem with Windows, but it makes a really *bad* web server.

    --
    Microsoft cheerleader, blue flag waving, you got a problem with that?
  2. Re:Balmer takes 5 years to change his mind by Belial6 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    You are going to run Windows. MS bought VirtualPC for two reasons.

    1) So that they can have a thin client server that works. Run images of full OSes on virtual machins, and a low end machine with just enough juice to run Remote Desktop can now be use quite well.

    2) To resolve any problem they will ever have with backward compatibility.
    <prediction>Your custom application doesn't work with the new WinServer 2010? No problem, an NT4.0 image with all the drivers that VPC emulates compiled in (to tie the image to the host OS) is sitting on WinServer 2010 with VirtualServer. Just mark your application as a NT4.0 application, and it will run just fine.</prediction>


    With VPC, MS no longer needs to release new versions of every application they ever made just to upgrade the OS. On my system VPC gets 80%-90% processing speed compared to the native CPU. They could do some work on memory and HD speeds, but that will come. This means that as long as Visual Studio runs at decent speeds inside of VPC, MS doesn't have to upgrade it at the same time as the OS.

    With VPC MS doesn't even have to stay on the same hardware platform. If a new (or old) CPU takes a huge leap of speed due to some breakthrough, and it becomes significantly faster than the x86/AMD64 platform, MS can move all windows software to the new platform by porting Windows, and VPC. This would immediatly make them a player in the new market.

    Buying VPC was the smartest thing I have seen MS do in years.