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back to article SUSE Linux and Canonical invade Windows Azure

There's more to Microsoft's announcement that it will support Linux on its new Azure infrastructure cloud than sleeping with the enemy. While Red Hat Enterprise Linux is conspicuously absent from the list of supported Linuxes, the fact remains that Red Hat doesn't exactly need any help from Microsoft, and that SUSE Linux and …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Help the underdog - then kill them

    Having worked with both SuSE and Canonical products (SuSE at work, Ubuntu at home), I'm less than impressed. SuSE is much less supported by commercial programs than Redhat, and I find SuSE has some curious holes in its distro (Just today, I was wanting to use Mudflap - but SuSE 11.4 doesn't have the gcc-mudflap package for gcc 4.5). And I am much less than impressed with the direction Canonical is taking Ubuntu (I've installed 12.4 on my old 10.4 machine - and now it won't suspend, it won't do Bluetooth, and don't get me started on the twin train wrecks that are Gnome3 and Unity).

    Just as Microsoft partnered with Nokia, who had become an underdog in the cellular business, Microsoft is partnering with the weaker of the Linux crowd, the better to bring down the stronger. And once that stronger is brought down, guess what will happen to the "partners" of Microsoft.

    The serial stupidity of companies astounds me - companies keep partnering with Microsoft, and being greatly harmed by it, and yet more companies line up, saying "Yes, but we will be DIFFERENT!"

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    1. Magnus_Pym
      Reply Icon

      Re: Help the underdog - then kill them

      Serial stupidity?

      I think you may be labouring under the common misapprehension that directors give a shit about the company, employees, shareholders or anyone else for that matter. By the time it all goes pear shaped the guys who actually signed the forms will be able to call in the administrators from their super yachts in the Cayman islands or wherever.

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    2. keithpeter Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Windows

      Re: Help the underdog - then kill them

      "And I am much less than impressed with the direction Canonical is taking Ubuntu (I've installed 12.4 on my old 10.4 machine - and now it won't suspend, it won't do Bluetooth, and don't get me started on the twin train wrecks that are Gnome3 and Unity)."

      RHEL7 will probably use Gnome Shell.

      Can't wait to see the reactions from the customer IT managers on that one...

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    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Headmaster

      Re: Help the underdog - then kill them

      12.4 and 10.4 ?

      Ahhhh syntax error !

      That's just brought our brand new rocket launch down because someone forgot a 0 !

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  2. P. Lee

    Suse != Redhat

    My guess would be that Suse appears on more desktops and Redhat on the servers.

    MS might be shooting themselves in the foot by hosting a desktop-oriented distro and hoping it will take sales from a server distro.

    I could be wrong.

    However, I suspect the real gain is getting MS hypervisors in place, rather than Citrix or KVM.

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  3. Nanki Poo
    Boffin

    Maybe something more...?

    I can't be bothered looking it up, and would positively be informed if someone disagrees, but I suspect there might be some Embrace-Extend parts of RedHat (as there are in i.e. Android etc) which are actually patented and owned by RH (Google for Android).

    Maybe these would mean that MS are playing the game of "OK, we can't host your OS because of that little widget thingy you stuck on it we would have to pay royalties for, but look we can host these other Linux OS' OK . . . "

    Good bargaining tool. As an MS-hating, Linux-using Android fan I'm not sure where that leaves me, but hey, I got popcorn . . .

    If it is about patents etc, nice to see these companies have to tread eggshells on the things that 'built them up'. hehehehe. :)

    nK

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  4. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

    Who wrote this article?

    And in what language originally?

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  5. Phil_Evans

    It's a growth thing...

    Canonical / Ubuntu are the stalking horse of the appliance world. I use the word 'appliance' since for me, at least, the term 'server' seems largely irrelevant. This is basically Microsoft hosting Linux appliances from providers who have simple, stable platforms that are controllable in minute detail. Azure will become a brand - hopefully in the enterprise space - as one of the few clouds to support a broad range of server-OS.

    That said, I can't help thinking that Microsoft's move points to the general demise of the licensing model and the rise of the pay-to-compute model they so thrive for. Dark clouds on the horizon for me are that Microsoft's core business of selling licenses over tin will have to change in the 'server/appliance' space to support this (not a position that constrains Amazon or many of the other major enterprise cloud business).

    Dop the 'Windows' Azure tag? Absolutely - if it's to make any sense!

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  6. The BigYin
    Linux

    Old tactic?

    Embrace: "We love your penguins. Bring them to us!"

    Extend: "We love your penguins long time. Install these super-power add-ons for extra Azure lurve. Make sure all your apps and databases are directly accessing the add-ons to get super-powers! Here's how to hard-wire everything..."

    Extinguish: "All super-power add-on support is being dropped. Windows contains a backwards compatible API, the transition is seamless. Your business now depends on Azure. Suckers."

    If a company wants to leverage the power of GNU/Linux...why the hell would they place such a rock-solid system on to of a Windows platform? It should be penguins, penguins all the way down.

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