Skinny Ubuntu Linux 'Snapped' up by fat Microsoft cloud A smartphone-inspired version of Ubuntu Server for Docker minimalists has been revealed with initial backing from Microsoft. Canonical is today expected to unveil the "Snappy" version of Ubuntu Core, a stripped-down server image of just 110MB built for thousands of servers in the cloud. It is available as an Alpha preview. …
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Things have changed. Perhaps even MS. Linux is just too big to omit. Bigger than MS in the embedded space and in super computers, a tie on the internet or bigger. One could say that while GM and Chrysler could go bust cars will still be made. If the cloud is where MS wants to succeed then leaving Linux out of the equation would be very dumb. MS is the lonely elephant here.
Does this have the smell of Xamarin about it?
I've had my doubts about Canonical for a while now and to see them snuggling up to MS just adds to my disquiet. Seems to me that both De Icaza and Shuttleworth are being seduced by the lure of MS's money. AS PNGuinn says best take a long spoon with you if you are going to get invited to MS's table or you might just feature on the menu instead!
There may be tears ahead.
You linux types are bloody weird, you know that?
You try for ages to convert us to a desktop OS that doesn't really give us all that much more than what we already use (think average user, not how you yourselves use it), then complain when the maker of an OS you like to slag off at every opportunity starts to utilise it in its own core business.
Are you rooting for the mass embrace of linux, or campaigning to keep it within its own niche area for good? Can't have both, I'm afraid.
Yeah, I'll get the downvotes, but at the same time, those same votes show I've touched on a nerve. So your call ;O)
I remember in 1995 that slackware came on BOOT and ROOT floppies that did the whole desktop, using FVMW windows look-a-like Window Manager, and that Win95 was a 30 Floppy affair with far less functionality than the 2 floppy of slack, same today too in that on a dvd you can get a shed load on linux, and a bare shell of an OS on windows, is how it is.
Do you also remember having to set monitor timings by hand to get X windows to show all the while praying you didn't FUBAR your CRT? Do you remember what a bitch it was to get PPP setup for dial up internet back in the day especially if you were dumb enough to buy a winmodem (at least I didn't make that mistake)? Slackware even today is generally not the distro for you if don't have serious vi skills (yes yes emacs or nano instead for you kids). Still kudos for them for resisting the freedesktop.borg. For the record not defending the garbage windows was until at least windows 2K.
Will anyone here actually be running tasks that need 100s of small dedicated virtual servers within Azure? What would one use a brace of these for exactly?
The CentOS crew have been talking about an absolute minimal CentOS 7 image for some time[1] (one of the Special Interest Groups) and Mr Singh seems to be quite keen to get one off the ground.
Is this a thing people see a big market for?
[1] http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2014-July/011629.html
I can think of a couple uses (most of which I've seen out in the wild):
* DDoS prevention (the tiny machines cushion the brunt of the attack while still passing through legitimate traffic)
* Extra security layer to analyze/sanitize user-input to prevent injection / overflow attacks
* CDN-like systems to handle requests for a large number of tiny objects (Prevent TCP port exhaustion on a busy site)
* run legacy apps that don't play well with others (Such as needing a specific version of the Java Runtime, or specific versions of some libraries)
* Hosting sub-domains that are rarely used but are required to be on a separate machine for one reason or another
* reverse proxies to load balance for the bigger machines
* pre-prod platform testing
The main reason is that many people these days provision their systems with something like Puppet or Ansible. If you have scripts that will install your app, pull in dependencies and configure everything, you only need the base distro to boot and be reachable over the network. Any other needed functionality will be added by the provisioning scripts.
Even Windows Server has a stripped-down minimal install option.
This is the third year in a row we've been treated to "Canonical partners with Microsoft on Azure" headlines. Sure the specific Ubuntu spin changes from year to year, but almost every article that comes out makes it sound like such a shocking development. If the mainstream media has the memory of a 9 year-old, then the tech press has to have that of a 5 year old. Is there anyone out there old enough to recall when Microsoft "partnered" with LinuxTag, you know, way back in 2011 and 2012 (Redmond had a presence at the conference from at least 2004)? About how MS actually sponsored a lot of Linux and FOSS related events as part of its rapprochement with Novell in 2006?
This isn't news. Not really. It's just more advertising.
Having said that I'm happy to see that the comment section, as always, is a consistent source of genuine entertainment. For example, "...libraries to support unnecessary crap like JSON". Confirmation that reason still exists in the world.
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