MS contributing to Linux

[Liam Proven]

2009/7/23 Smoot Carl-Mitchell <smoot at tic.com>:
> On Thu, 2009-07-23 at 17:00 +0100, Liam Proven wrote:
>> 2009/7/23 Chan Chung Hang Christopher <christopher.chan at bradbury.edu.hk>:
>> > Smoot Carl-Mitchell wrote:
>> >> On Tue, 2009-07-21 at 22:25 +0800, Chan Chung Hang Christopher wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> தங்கமணி அருண் wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>>> Read : http://lkml.org/lkml/2009/7/20/167
>> >>>>
>> >>> OOOooohh. Microsoft releasing a driver so that you can run Linux on top
>> >>> of Windows. What a PR win.
>> >>
>> >> 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.
>> >>
>> > Dude, where do you get the kool-aid?
>>
>> He is exactly right. Of course it is. Hyper-V is *exactly* the same
>> sort of move as Internet Explorer was.
>>
>> Secondly, MS did not choose to give away the source, it had to,
>> because it has been caught violating the GPL.
>
> Folks, MS did not have to GPL the source.

YES THEY DID. This is the entire point of this story.

MS linked its own code with GPL code in the drivers. This is in
violation of the GPL, so they either had to withdraw the offending
code or release the whole lot under the GPL.


>  They could have provided
> proprietary drivers much as VMware does with its virtualization
> software.

They could have done, *if* they had written them from scratch, but
they did not; they statically linked to GPL libraries. This means the
resultant code must be GPLed.

> I believe they chose to GPLv2 the drivers because the wanted
> the code in the mainstream Linux release.

No, they did not. They used the GPL because the alternative was a
climb-down, apology, withdrawal and re-write.

Q.v.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=3433

> I am not naive enough to think MS is doing this out of some sense of
> community.

I'm afraid you /are/ being a bit naïve here.

MS did not do this out of choice; it was /compelled/ to do it, because
it was caught violating the GPL.

This is a critical point to grasp.

>  I along with Paula Jones of Groklaw see this as a move to
> enhance the market position of Hyper-V.

Of course it is; one would be a fool to suggest anything else.

But it could have released closed-source drivers as part of its VM
additions and still furthered the course of Hyper-V. And if it could
have done so cleanly, it would have. But some MS coder used GPL code
in constructing the drivers and MS got caught redistributing a binary
containing GPL code, and that is against the rules.

So to cover its ass, it release the code as GPL, buying itself a
public-relations victory.

The message - "MS gives out code under GPL" - is therefore just a
positive spin on MS being caught breaking the rules.

It's therefore very important not to swallow the spin without
understanding the real message here.

>  It does however acknowledge the
> fact that MS sees mixed server environments as the rule and not the
> exception.  They had to do something to support Linux under Hyper-V.[...]

True, but irrelevant.

> At least with these
> drivers, they have the opportunity to dip their toes in the Linux waters
> cheaply.

There are multiple free hypervisors available to Windows users these
days. Hyper-V is far from unique in this; indeed, by implying that
Hyper-V is the only way to sample Linux inside a VM cheaply, you are
doing a grave disservice to various open-source projects and MS
rivals.

Furthermore, as Hyper-V requires Windows 2008 Server running on a
processor with hardware virtualisation instructions, by saying that
Hyper-V plus these drivers aids Microsoft shops in trying out
Linux-in-a-VM, you are promoting sales of an expensive MS product.

In terms of cheap ways to try Linux in a VM: Innotek's VirtualBox
seems to be the free hypervisor of choice these
days, but the small-f free options, TTBOMK, summarise as:

 - VirtualBox from Sun ("full" freeware edition or limited FOSS
edition) under Linux, Windows or Mac OS X;
 - QEMU (FOSS) with KQEMU module on x86 under Windows, Linux or Mac OS X;
 - KVM (FOSS) on Linux on an x86 with hardware virtualisation;
 - VirtualPC on Windows/x86, or VirtualServer on Windows Server/x86, from MS;
 - VMware Player (can't create or edit VMs) or VMware Server (on
Windows or Linux) from VMware.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
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