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 Channel Futures

Open Source


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

  • Written by Christopher Tozzi
  • June 10, 2016

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

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.

In turn, the offering will help assure that Azure remains relevant as more and more applications are converted to cloud-based virtual appliances. It will also cater to people who believe that FreeBSD offers better networking performance than Linux.

The Channel Takeaway

Microsoft’s FreeBSD announcement is only the latest in a series of open source-friendly moves that have emerged from Redmond starting more than a year ago. There’s nothing fundamentally new here.

But the announcement is still notable, for two main reasons.

The first is that it makes it even harder to keep questioning whether Microsoft has truly benevolent intentions toward the open source community. Given the rocky history between the two camps, it’s no surprise that some people have wondered whether Microsoft really now believes that supporting open source is in its interests, or is simply pursuing a complex, nefarious plot to destroy free software forever by pretending to love open source.

In the case of the FreeBSD image, it’s pretty clear that Microsoft and the FreeBSD community both have things to gain by cooperating. Against this backdrop, it is increasingly hard to question Microsoft’s intentions as it makes more investments in open source.

Also worth noting is the affirmation that Microsoft is giving to the FreeBSD community, which has long lived in the much larger shadow of Linux. The FreeBSD codebase is much older than Linux, and FreeBSD advocates, as noted above, have long touted what they see as their operating system’s performance advantages over the more popular open source Unix-like OS.

Now, a company as large as Microsoft seems to agree with them.

Tags: Cloud Service Providers Digital Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs Open Source

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6 comments

  1. Avatar Dimitris June 11, 2016 @ 5:02 am
    Reply

    I wonder whether there is
    I wonder whether there is another dimension to Microsoft cooking up their own FreeBSD flavor.

    Perhaps because license-wise BSD is closer to Microsoft’s grasp than GPL is in the sense that Microsoft doesn’t necessarily need to give back to the community or distribute the source code along with their binaries which makes BSDs.

    This might be a new Microsoft… but with their old tricks still in their toolbox. My gut feeling tells me this is just Microsoft business as usual.

    What does your gut feeling say?

    • Avatar Anonymous June 13, 2016 @ 12:15 am
      Reply

      Microsoft allege that they
      Microsoft allege that they will push code changes to upstream FreeBSD.
      This is no surprise since there are many examples where many entities using BSD-type license take advantage of the flexibility in having code managed at the upstream level, i.e. as if submitted code was a maintained like a core component of operating system (OS) for every OS release, than managing code in house at downstream level. At least a BSD type license gives you that option and still the other option where you decide to maintain your very proprietary/secret code at downstream (inhouse) level.

    • Avatar AllanJude June 14, 2016 @ 1:22 am
      Reply

      Microsoft made their own
      Microsoft made their own image for two reasons:

      A) They had additional changes to the code after the 10.3 release. Rather than building an image from stable/10 which is a constantly moving target, they build their own image of 10.3 + their patches

      B) To provide support, it really helps if the image is consistent, which means including fixes that normally may not be back ported, while not pulling in any other changes that might introduce new issues.

  2. Avatar da_Ryan June 11, 2016 @ 8:57 pm
    Reply

    Tbh, I think Microsoft’s
    Tbh, I think Microsoft’s overt hostility to all the Unix-like operating systems is over because a) there’s a more pragmatic CEO at Microsoft and b) since Linux, BSD and Open Solaris operating systems are used so widely by enterprises, Microsoft is having to adapt to that new commercial reality, i.e. they are now only dominant in the desktop computer area.

  3. Avatar Anonymous June 13, 2016 @ 12:23 am
    Reply

    Like years ago I predicted,
    Like years ago I predicted, rather than Microsoft fighting against itself, Microsoft should think about interacting with other operating systems.
    The Microsoft Windows OS was never a good candidate at being a “one-stop-shop”, at least for me who requires an OS optimised for development/building of software (i.e. a unix layer) and also a clutter free computer-usage experience. I prefer the light-weightness of an X-server over a fullblown GUI system. I see many advantages in having a terminal layer lying below the gui layer, as in unix.

    Windows services for Linus (WSL) is a good initial step.
    WSL supporting GPU/OpenGL/Vulkan/X-server would be welcomed.

  4. Avatar Horatio Beancounter June 13, 2016 @ 1:09 am
    Reply

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

    The article fails to answer this question which has a very simple and logical answer.

    Microsoft Incorporated loves more the OS from which more of the OS’s users become Microsoft customers, resulting in higher income and higher profits.

    There is no other motivation.

    “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil.”

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