Microsoft released some drivers for Linux running on Hyper-V this week, with a lot of bell ringing and fanfare. Most people don’t know that behind the scenes, a protracted battle has been fought due to the fact that Microsoft have had these drivers for some time but they weren’t GPL-compliant.
Microsoft have now been forced through the GPL to become compliant or not be able to offer Linux support within Hyper-V which is something they desperately need to ward off the flock of clients leaving their platform for better pastures. If they didn’t comply, they wouldn’t be able to use the code. Easy to fix though – comply with the GPL. And not a charge/cost in site. Interesting though is the fact that this did not take any litigation – contrast this to Microsoft’s recent patent litigation against TomTom and others.
Folks in the know though won’t be running Linux on the Windows Server platform ( for critical workloads ) any time soon considering the less than stellar reliability/availability/security of the platform. A recent visit to a client site of mine ( with a friend ) and the viewing of Linux systems that had been running for more than 2 years brought about a few murmurs of wonder from my acquaintance. His comment was “I tend to reboot my boxes every month to keep memory and other issues to a minimum”.
This release has a number of pros for all involved.
1. It will be useful for those Windows shops testing the waters of OSS
2. Microsoft has a new migration tool
3. The GPL is strengthened ( not that it needs to be ) with the acquiescence of Microsoft
4. Less vendor lock-in