FreeBSD vs. Linux: Which Open Source OS Does Microsoft Now Love More?

[RV_]

Excerpt:

 

"Microsoft loves not only Linux but also FreeBSD -- or so its recent release of a FreeBSD image for the Azure cloud suggests. And that leaves us wondering: How much longer until the open source world stops questioning Redmond's engagement in the open source space?

 

On June 8 Microsoft announced that an image of FreeBSD -- an open source operating system based on a kernel similar to but fundamentally different from Linux -- is now available in the Azure marketplace. And it's not just any FreeBSD image, but one created by Microsoft. As the company noted in announcing the FreeBSD image, this means that official support for FreeBSD is available from Microsoft on Azure.

 

Yes, the company whose former CEO once called Linux a cancer (and not because he liked FreeBSD any better) is now officially supporting not only a variety of Linux-based options for Azure, but now FreeBSD, too.

Why FreeBSD?

 

Microsoft is not doing this purely out of enthusiasm for the FreeBSD community. According to the blog post announcing the FreeBSD image, the company's main goal is to make life easier for people who want to build virtual appliances based on FreeBSD to run on the Azure cloud."

 

More in the rest of the article here: http://thevarguy.com/open-source-application-software-companies/freebsd-vs-linux-which-open-source-os-does-microsoft-now-

[Dutch_12078]

Does anyone else remember "Xenix", the Microsoft Unix variant licensed from AT&T in the late '70s? In the mid-to-late '80s, Microsoft Xenix was the most common Unix variant in use based on the number of machines it was installed on. Unix-like OS's are certainly nothing new to them.

[Mark and Dale Bruss]

Gates had the license for UNIX before MSDOS was created.