Microsoft To Run Linux On Azure 189
snydeq writes "After years of battling Linux as a competitive threat, Microsoft is now offering Linux-based operating systems on its Windows Azure cloud service. The Linux services will go live on Azure at 4 a.m. EDT on Thursday. At that time, the Azure portal will offer a number of Linux distributions, including Suse Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2, OpenSuse 12.01, CentOS 6.2 and Canonical Ubuntu 12.04. Azure users will be able to choose and deploy a Linux distribution from the Microsoft Windows Azure Image Gallery and be charged on an hourly pay-as-you-go basis."
Heh... (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah but how many people honestly use Azure?
So what's new? (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft almost always supports other platforms if it has enough marketshare and if they think they can make money off it. They even seem to be making Office for the iPad. The summary is trying to be a troll as usual. This is like WINE, more support is always good if you trying to get as many customers as possible.
They even released an Android app recently.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsofts-bing-mobile-team-introduces-new-app-first-for-android-phones/12856 [zdnet.com]
Re:A good start (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree that this is a positive step.
I have nearly a religious hatred towards MS, and it has nothing to do with "Microsoft's desire for profit." I work for a company that sells software for profit, so obviously that would would be hypocritical if I felt that way.
What I've always hated about Microsoft was their willingness to buck standards just to prevent their users from using other products along with MS products.
This started with early versions of Windows that required you to also buy DOS. A competitor to DOS came out (Dr. DOS), and Microsoft responded by putting a check into the Windows bootstrap that would cause it to exit out with an error if Dr. DOS was detected. Any time a company goes out of their way to make their own product not operate with 3rd party software, it generates serious rage from customers like me.
As I look back over the last few years, the last move by MS that really angered me was the whole OOXML vs Open Document war [wikipedia.org], where Microsoft refused to use the new standard, and instead made their own new standard with built in obfuscation.
There's still a lot terrible decisions that MS makes for their customers (hiding file extensions by default [techie-buzz.com] in Windows, modifying extensions on files downloaded with IE without informing the user [techtalkz.com], automatically removing line breaks [microsoft.com] on messages read in Outlook without telling the user), but I've seen far less pure evil come from the giant, compared to ages past.
Re:Heh... (Score:2, Insightful)
All three of you?
NOOOOO!!!!!!!
Re:So what's new? (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft almost always supports other platforms if it has enough marketshare and if they think they can make money off it.
Microsoft will not support other platforms if they pose a real threat to their core product of Windows+Office, but they will support other platforms if it helps to maintain the appearance of competition and hence keep antitrust regulators at bay. Having an Apple desktop taking 5% of the global market is acceptable if it means that Microsoft gets the other 95%, and when accused of having a monopoly, they can point to Apple as evidence of a competitive alternative. A duopoly with a single-digit market share competitor is better than being subject to antitrust regulators.
Re:So what's new? (Score:2, Insightful)
Microsoft will not support other platforms if they pose a real threat to their core product of Windows+Office
Who would? What sort of idiotic corporation would support their direct competitor's attempt destroy their own revenue stream?!
but they will support other platforms if it helps to maintain the appearance of competition and hence keep antitrust regulators at bay.
Or the more obvious reason of: They make money supporting those platforms. They are interested, like any other company, in making money so they will support any platform on which they can make money.
Re:Heh... (Score:5, Insightful)