Microsoft has
announced that they will support customers that run Linux within Microsoft
Virtual Server 2005 R2
In addition to making "virtualized" Linux support inside MVS 2005, Microsoft has also announced that it has made Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 a free download, previously priced at $99 for up to 4 processors or $199 for an unlimited number of processors. CNET claims:
Microsoft said that it has developed
software to simplify the installation of Linux distributions from Red Hat and
Novell SuSE to run on Virtual Server 2005 R2 on Windows. In addition, Microsoft
will provide technical support [to] customers running Windows and Linux side by
side.
Microsoft has also said that the upcoming server edition of Windows Vista
will have virtualization built in to it. Specifically Microsoft said that it is
developing hypervisor software, code-named Viridian, to host multiple operating
systems on one machine.