Microsoft opens up VHD

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 17 Oct 2006 at 18:16

'With Xen on SUSE Linux Enterprise, you can run a fully virtualized Windows operating system, as long as you have an Intel VT or AMD-V chipset - and you can do it today.

'This dichotomy shows the speed of innovation which open source provides against commercial operating system vendors.'

But despite the open-source lead, the proprietary nature of Microsoft's software might be its ace. 'Microsoft Windows is proprietary software,' Novell told us. 'We cannot touch the code without violating the Windows licence. The only way that you can paravirtualize Windows is if Microsoft decides to do it.' And if Microsoft doesn't make paravirtualised versions of its software available under its OSP, then its own virtualisation platform will look the more attractive to anyone wanting to run para-virtualised Windows guests.