7 ms·
No Really: Microsoft giving away Windows Image with redistribution allowed
No tricks. Microsoft is giving away Windows Server 2008. And you can even redistribute the image.
- dpritchett 17y agoMicrosoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 appears to be a no-gui virtualization host (hypervisor). There's a feature chart here that alludes to an unclear licensing issue with "guest virtualization rights". [1] The downloadable image is 1.5 GB. [1] http://www.microsoft.com/hyper-v-server/en/us/default.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/hyper-v-server/en/us/default.aspx
- VonGuard 17y agoHey, that's enough to boot and run apps. Also, if you diddle the image with one of MS's tools, you can jam a gui into it, in theory.
- windsurfer 17y agoIf that's the case, one could produce a tool that includes the image and "patches" it after installation, creating a free GUIfied windows.
- pbhjpbhj 17y agoCould you install KDE4 on top - that might actually be a very good way to get a clean KDE4 over MS Windows if it works; http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/KDE_on_Windows http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/KDE_on_Windows.
- rbanffy 17y agoGreat. You would get a KDE desktop without the Unix part on top of the famously solid Windows kernel. What could possibly go wrong?
- patrickgzill 17y agoNote: you must use Intel VT or AMD-V enabled CPUs for this. Opterons that have only 3 digits in their model number won't work (such as 275, 880, etc), those with 4 digits (2220, 8218, etc) will. (edit: looks like non-Windows guest OSes can only be allocated 1 virtual CPU; for me that is a deal-killer.)
- dotBen 17y agoIf you want to run non-windows guest OS's then why us Windows as the host/hypervisor?
- sokoloff 17y agoIf you were a 99% Windows shop but wanted a linux-based DNS, mediawiki, subversion or similar server would be one case. (Host mostly Windows guests, but a small number of non-Windows.)
- mjhnghfh 17y agoIn which case you would have windows server machines that could run VirtualPC/VMware/Virtualbox. The only 'point' of this article is that you can distribute a free windows base image.
- barnaby 17y agoWow, I must be behind the times. Microsoft have a headless server? Windows as a hypervisor? Thank you for posting this, as this is news to me.
- mjhnghfh 17y agoSo I can run windows as a headless baselayer to virtualize paid for copies of windows. Rather than using Linux or the built in Xen hypervisor. <shrugs>
- Slashed 17y agoFirst time I stumbled upon this version of Windows about half a year ago. I actually installed it on one of my laptops. When it's BOOTed, the "GUI" is pretty much like in Safe-Mode, only in full display resolution, i.e. a blue background and a console window. I don't remember exactly, but it was missing a lot of libraries.. so I couldn't actually install much software. Though, I'm sure it's possible to install all the missing libraries via Microsoft's website.
- nollidge 17y agoHey cool, an irritating JS overlay as soon as I open it.
- YogSothoth 17y agoI immediately close any site that does this - don't care what they are offering/selling - if they behave this way, I guarantee their wares aren't worth bothering with. It's almost like looking at code, I generally only have to look at the formatting. You don't see a lot of lame code that's impeccably formatted (nor a lot of useful websites that do that in-your-face type of advertising).
- rbanffy 17y agoSdtimes is worth clicking on a close button.
- javert 17y agoI run a Linux desktop but would like to be able to run Windows apps in a Windows guest. I'm going to try to run this as a Windows guest and see if it works (using VirtualBox).
- rbanffy 17y agoWhy would anyone want to do this?
- bonsaitree 17y agoI have no idea. Microsoft lost this former "solutions provider" (used to get the monthly crate-o-CDs) in the mid-90s with the anti-developer trifecta of: - Executable registry entries - Baking-In IE into the O.S. w/o any native ability (pre hypervisors) to concurrently run multiple versions for testing purposes - Re-Authorization/Re-Licensing for trivial hardware changes (the whole WGA bullshit)
- iigs 17y agoI've never heard of executable registry entries, and google is failing me when I try to find them. Can you link me to something about them?
- kogir 17y agoIf you have no interest in virtualizing Windows then this won't be of much use to you. First class support for Linux is limited to Suse and RedHat Enterprise. However, if you're a Microsoft shop and want to virtualize Windows (be it for production, testing, or development), it's a huge boon. Hyper-V even supports some awesome features like live migration (moving a VM from one host to another) with mere seconds of downtime. Similar features in VMWare cost thousands of dollars. At Loopt we're going to be using this extensively for development.
- arethuza 17y agoHyper-V is a bit of a pain as it doesn't let you over-commit on memory. VMWare ESXi looks like a much better bet - I'm currently thinking about moving 40+ VMs in a development environment from Hyper-V to ESX so we can run more of them at the same time.
- fname 17y agoActually, with Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 it will add dynamic memory which is the same as VMware's memory overcommit as well as RemoteFX for 3D graphics display for virtualized desktops. http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/198736.asp http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/198736.asp
- listic 17y agoIt can be counted as a benefit. You will appreciate the fact that your hosting provider cannot oversell the servers. Xen also works like this.
- sharms 17y agoXen actually does support overcommit: http://blog.xen.org/index.php/2008/08/27/xen-33-feature-memory-overcommit/ http://blog.xen.org/index.php/2008/08/27/xen-33-feature-memo...