* Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 to support Linux
Microsoft finally gave a nod to Linux last week when it announced that its Virtual Server 2005 server virtualization software would support the open source operating system.
When Microsoft acquired Connectix in 2003, it dropped support for many of the operating systems Connectix’s Virtual PC supported. Support for FreeBSD, OS/2, NetWare, Solaris and Linux went away, and only Windows and Macintosh remained. Last fall, Connectix’s Virtual PC became Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Standard and Enterprise Editions, as well as Virtual PC for Windows and Macintosh.
Last week at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reversed his Linux rant. In 2001, Ballmer was noted to have said, “Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches.”
He said last week that Microsoft had given in to customer demand for software that can run Linux as one of its virtual machines.
“Virtualization is an area of intense interest and activity for us,” Ballmer says. “Driving virtualization is a key technology to facilitate better compatibility and lower total cost of ownership.”
Microsoft will first support Linux in Virtual Server 2005 Service Pack 1, which is due by year-end. The beta of the product is available now and can be downloaded from https://www.microsoft.com/virtualserver
Virtual Server 2005 can run on 32- and 64-bit machines. The company is also shipping the Virtual Server Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005, which allows IT managers to monitor the health of virtual machines. In the future, MOM will be able to monitor Linux virtual machines.
