Citing interoperability as a larger goal, Microsoft  has promised that it will add Linux support to its Virtual Server 2005 Service Pack 1, due by the end of the year. It will be the first Microsoft product to get Linux support.
The announcement was made by Microsoft head Steve Ballmer during a keynote at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas.
Ballmer, who has criticized Linux in the past, noted that the shift is meant to help users manage heterogeneous networks.
Feeling Flexible
With the service pack's release, support will be available for all non-Windows virtual machines running on Virtual Server, Ballmer said. This will give users greater flexibility for virtualization .
"Virtualization is an area of intense interest and activity for us," he said during the keynote. "Driving virtualization is a key technology to facilitate better compatibility and lower total cost of ownership."
Currently, users can run other operating systems within Virtual Server 2005, including Linux, but Microsoft does not provide support for the configurations.
Trash Talk
Having Microsoft's Linux support announcement come from Ballmer is an especially intriguing move, given the executive's past comments.
In 2001, Ballmer stated that "Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches."
A few years later he softened his approach, but still criticized the system as one that lacked innovation and communality.
No Linux Love
Although Microsoft could conceivably add support to other products, that does not mean it is now fond of the system, said Yankee Group Laura DiDio.
"They're fighting Linux on every front, and aggressively," she said. "That's why there's the focus in Asia, where Linux adoption is growing."
The company also has stepped up a marketing campaign that compares Windows favorably to areas where Linux is thought to be dominant, such as cost effectiveness and security. But it also recognizes that some of its customers use Linux, and so it has to address that, DiDio noted.
"They're not going to turn their backs on customers just because they don't like Linux," she said.
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