Microsoft Says Hyper-V RC 1 Good to Go - Page 2

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Meanwhile, Microsoft's claim that support for new guest operating systems has been added to Hyper-V RC 1 is true - if you discount the fact that all but two of the operating systems the hypervisor supports are Microsoft operating systems, and those two are versions of Novell SUSE Linux.

This is merely a tip of the hat to other vendors' operating systems. Microsoft "wants to show that they can virtualize non-Windows environments, and their existing relationships with Novell mean it's the best way to go to market with their product," Bowker said.

Microsoft might later add support for Linspire, another Linux distributor that it has teamed up with, to the lineup.

While Microsoft has been trying for years to squash open source software, it has split the Linux market by teaming up with Novell and Linspire while at the same time threatening to sue other Linux vendors for infringements on more than 200 unspecified Microsoft patents.

The Linux community has accused Microsoft of dirty deeds.

The Linux market will probably remain closed to Microsoft's efforts, because "the larger Linux shops will use Citrix XenServer or a Xen-based product or VMware instead of Hyper-V to standardize on server virtualization," Bowker said.