Want Linux under Windows? Microsoft and Novell hype it up!

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 11 September 2008 12:05

Business IT - Technology

The hype around Hyper-V, Linux and Windows continues building as Microsoft and Novell jointly announce full support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Edition as a guest operating system under Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V.

Linux and Windows working nicely together might not be the dream scenario for Linux purists committed to a Microsoft-free world. Indeed, there are some who will likely slam this development as little more that Microsoft hype and hoo-hah.

But the announcement is significant, as it is the latest phase in the cooperation between Microsoft and Novell, which includes the patent covenant that raised the ire of some in the open source.

For enterprise customers, it's useful to know that someone's going to take responsibility when things go wrong in a mixed-vendor environment, which is one of messages Microsoft and Novell have been pushing since announcing their pact.

Clearly, you don't want supplier A pointing the finger at supplier B, who immediately tries to shift responsibility to A - something we've probably all gone through at some stage, though not necessarily in an IT context.

So when Microsoft and Novell jointly offer SUSE Linux Enterprise Server running as a guest under Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, that's pretty reassuring for a potential customer that's looking for such a configuration, no matter what a Linux purist might think.

And Dell's involved too - please read on.