What’s Up?

Microsoft has released a feature-complete version of Hyper-V, their new virtualization technology, and detailed the supported operating systems that can be virtualized:

  • Windows Server 2003 SP2
  • Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1
  • Windows Vista SP1 (x86)
  • and Windows XP SP3 (x86)

For some reason this list has caused some of the people in the Linux community to protest, basically stating that it’s not enough for them to feel that Novell is being eaten by the “Borg”, but inexplicably that they want to be tasty snacks too. Essentially they are cranky that Microsoft isn’t supporting more versions of Linux than just Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise on Hyper-V.

The Reality

Uh guys, this is supposed to be a supported version of an Enterprise-grade Operating System, albeit not an OS that I personally want to run, but it is something that both companies are going to be providing support up the stacks for. This is not VMWare, (boy-oh-boy is that true), it’s from Microsoft, and it took major pressure for them to even acknowledge the existence of Linux, much less to partner with Novell, and finally to step across the void and make a version of Linux part of their next-generation virtualization offering.

I doubt that Microsoft will be adding any of the non-Enterprise distributions of Linux to the list of supported configurations, there being already ample opportunity to virtualize those in products such as VMWare, XEN, Citrix, VirtualBox and others.

Again, true enterprise-grade support of an OS, particularly one that has many flavors such as Linux requires choosing a few well-understood versions, and communicating properly with the people who make or release them, enterprise support isn’t installation support, or the kind of support that VMWare has for that various distros, it’s something people pay good money for and expect a Service Level Agreement for.

What to Do?

It’s just funny to see my fellow community members being upset about being left out of an operating system by a vendor they were upset Novell formed a partnership with. I think some time in Binkley’s Meadow contemplating what’s most important in life is in order.

RossB

Last 3 posts by RossB