Sunday March 21, 2010 6:42 PM AEST

Atomic MPC > News > Build > Networking > Microsoft give away Linux kernel drivers for free

Microsoft give away Linux kernel drivers for free

Linux might be seen as serious competition by Microsoft after all.

Linux was long feared as different by the majority of users and while it's bringing itself into the limelight more and more with USB 3.0 inclusion, plenty of distros to choose from and even limited DX10 compatibility, it is still a little limited.

However some of those limitations for wide acceptance are lifting as you read, as Microsoft announce their release of Hyper-V Linux Integration Components (LinuxIC) - covered under the GNU General Public License.

Hyper-V is the latest generation virtualisation technology, and being covered under that license means that it's free for anyone to use - giving free kernel drivers and allowing greater performance.

This also makes Microsoft's virtualisation software a decent alternative to VMWare's competing product, giving a lot more flexibility for sysadmins and giving potentially lower costs.

Head over to CNET to read more about LinuxIC, via Bit-Tech.

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3 Comments

Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.

Leonid Jul 22, 2009 11:22 AM	This is nothing new - Microsoft has been doing this kind of thing since Virtual PC 2007 had Linux Virtual Machine Additions. Problem is that the additions are limited to certain enterprise distros - you can probably forget *debian or ubuntu support. And nothing in the BSD or Solaris area which VMware ESX can and does do.
stash Jul 22, 2009 7:07 PM	Microsoft have already given up dx10 for use on linux?
TheSecret Jul 23, 2009 5:18 AM	Eh? This is the first time Microsoft have released code under the GPL for inclusion in the kernel. It is a major thing, and if included is in no way limited by any distro. It's not really anything major though, and is just so Microsofts hypervisor will support Linux guests a bit better...which is necessary if they want to progress in that market.

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Issue: 111 | April, 2010

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