MS contributing to Linux

[Smoot Carl-Mitchell]

On Tue, 2009-07-21 at 10:44 -0500, Cybe R. Wizard wrote:
> On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:15:35 -0700
> Smoot Carl-Mitchell <smoot at tic.com> wrote:
> 
> > This is an MS move to compete with VMware. I am not sure why you want
> > to run Linux under Windows, but there are a lot of Windows shops out
> > there that may see some benefits.
> 
> And they'll curse Linux when it crashes and us for telling them Linux
> is more stable.

Windows 2008 server is pretty stable.  It is a far cry from XP or Vista.
I do not know how stable it is as a virtual hosting server, though.
What is interesting is VMware is a step ahead of them.  VMware in large
environments just runs its virtual machine monitor on a host without a
Linux kernel.  The idea is to run a big virtualization cluster where you
can move virtual machines around at will. I do not know if MS's
virtualization roadmap is heading in the same direction, but I would not
be surprised if it is.

With this move, MS is admitting heterogeneity in the datacenter is a
given.  They lost the war against Linux adoption.  Their move still
bears watching, since their track record with the OSS community is
hardly stellar.
-- 
Smoot Carl-Mitchell
Computer Systems and
Network Consultant
smoot at tic.com
+1 480 922 7313
cell: +1 602 421 9005