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Microsoft submits Linux kernel patches to enable complete Hyper-V on Linux

theregister.com

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Re: Microsoft submits Linux kernel patches to enable complete Hyper-V on Linux

#61

Post by crumbshot »

Diggsey wrote: post #48
selsta wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WSL2 is a simple virtual machine. Nothing you couldn’t do on macOS with e.g. multipass.

It's really not. With WSL2 the kernel runs in a VM, but user-space programs do not. As a result, CPU-bound programs suffer close to zero overhead compared to running natively on linux. AFAIK, there's no way to achieve anything like this on macOS.

That is not quite correct, it is in WSL1 that they are NT processes, with Linux syscall emulation.

But in WSL2 the whole thing runs in a Hyper-V VM, with a customised Linux kernel (available via http://linux.microsoft.com) to help with interoperability between WSL and Windows.

Re: Microsoft submits Linux kernel patches to enable complete Hyper-V on Linux

#62

Post by severino »

baq wrote: post #46
severino wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what's wrong with Linux if you want a Linux based system? I don't remember the last time I got a Linux desktop which didn't "just work"; of course I try to avoid exotic hardware components, but the truth is that you can run into driver problems and issues too when running operating systems you pay money for, like Windows.

Windows drivers for GPUs have at least an order of magnitude more people working on them than Linux drivers.

I don't know for other vendors, but at least for nvidia, there's parity with the Windows drivers, according to the benchmarks and the general stability. In fact, I remember when sometimes a feature had to be removed from the Linux version of the nvidia drivers just to keep "parity with the Windows one".

Re: Microsoft submits Linux kernel patches to enable complete Hyper-V on Linux

#63

Post by severino »

nicoburns wrote: post #56
severino wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know lot of people use excel, and can't live without it. Anyway, the point is that we can blame Linux for kernel or driver issues, its thousands of desktop environments for its bugs, etc, but I don't think it's fair to say that Linux "doesn't work" just because Microsoft will never release Linux versions of their desktop software. I have a working Linux desktop and I also use spreadsheets in my day to day work.

No, but if you are a developer choosing a system to use then this can never-the-less be a good reason for not choosing linux and preferring either macOS or windows with a unix layer.

Yes, it's true, but it depends on what your needs are. For example, in my case, as a developer, I prefer not to spend any money on Office software and instead get a higher end CPU.

Re: Microsoft submits Linux kernel patches to enable complete Hyper-V on Linux

#64

Post by somedude11 »

Sangeppato wrote: post #39
severino wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what's wrong with Linux if you want a Linux based system? I don't remember the last time I got a Linux desktop which didn't "just work"; of course I try to avoid exotic hardware components, but the truth is that you can run into driver problems and issues too when running operating systems you pay money for, like Windows.

I agree, if you just want to use Linux a classic Thinkpad/XPS will play well with it

Unless you want your built in cellular modem to work properly.

Re: Microsoft submits Linux kernel patches to enable complete Hyper-V on Linux

#65

Post by jmnicolas »

rubidium wrote: post #55
jmnicolas wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's already WSL for your Unix needs. However MS seems to fall back on its old bad habits and the "it-just-works" gui is less true since a while now (I would say a year): we had some major pains after every Windows update at work to the point where the admin blocked them in the firewall. I think their release schedule (twice a year) is way too fast, and they should focus more on stability.

LTSB for the win. I don’t know why more orgs don’t default to that.

We're 2 to manage IT tasks in the company (my real qualification is software dev though). We don't have access to Microsoft anything (too expensive) so we use the licenses that comes with the computers we (rarely) buy.

I still haven't managed to convert all our workstations from Win 7 to Win 10 (and yes we still have a couple XPs), there are special apps on them that needs the intervention of one of our provider, it's complicated.

Last year one of our provider sent us some machines with LTSB 2016 installed. They're already at their EOL.

Edge is not available and there's not even an image viewer on this OS, MS Photos is impossible to install (and is crap anyway, it regularly fails to show an image that any other viewer including Paint can open etc).

Color me unimpressed.

Re: Microsoft submits Linux kernel patches to enable complete Hyper-V on Linux

#66

Post by whereistimbo »

flatiron wrote: post #40
a_imho wrote: post #11

I know next to nothing about virtualization, are these patches Microsoft specific, or do they benefit others as well?

HyperV host only runs on Windows.

This patch makes it possible to make Linux as HyperV host, or in Xen terminology, "Dom0"

Re: Microsoft submits Linux kernel patches to enable complete Hyper-V on Linux

#67

Post by whereistimbo »

morrbo wrote: post #4

This is awesome. Although hyperv itself has been great for me, there have been certain things which have been a royal pain (copying/unzipping a compressed image, integrating into our monitoring system come to mind) which don't work with the stripped down windows version they have. I do wonder though, will the Linux version be backwards compatible with the Microsoft hyper-v console? Or will there be something similar?…

Probably they will port necessary library and console apps to Linux version of PowerShell.

Re: Microsoft submits Linux kernel patches to enable complete Hyper-V on Linux

#68

Post by mindcrime »

tomrod wrote: post #58
willis936 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really feel this. I manage about a hundred computers for scientists/students. Total free reign. Some want to use linux. I’m sorry, you will never have working audio. Oh. It looks like the available linux drivers don’t play nice with this sandy bridge mobo and the dm will fail to initialize. The list goes on. Never have I seen lack of hardware support on windows. I think that’s the essence of “just works” here.

Weird. Outside of wifi Debian and Fedora always just work for my exotic configs.

Yep. In my experience, Linux (mainly Fedora) has been a "just works" experience for a good 15 or so years now. Wifi, sound, hibernate, etc, all work fine for me on a variety of hardware.

Re: Microsoft submits Linux kernel patches to enable complete Hyper-V on Linux

#69

Post by dippersauce »

EE84M3i wrote: post #23
smartmic wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it feels quite the opposite. OS X is built upon on a Unix core and shares such common heritage. There is consistency in the design throughout all OS levels. On the contrary with Windows and GNU/Linux, IMHO two very incompatible architectures. The business rationale for Microsoft behind this is clear but hybrids represent mostly a temporary transition state. So the question is, what comes next, where is the jou…

>There is consistency in the design throughout all OS levels. There is...? What sort of examples come to mind?

I cannot speak for the other poster, but there are several levels where consistency is significantly better. The GUI is of course the most noticeable, especially as the “iOS-ification” of macOS continues. But for a developer, the methods you interact with are more consistent across platforms and apps. Porting an app between iOS and macOS can be as simple as changing a few method names and setting a new target in XCode. For the most part one can assume things like app bundle layouts and where files will be dropped on the system. Most of this consistency lies parallel to where Apple enforces it, which comes with its own downsides.

That consistency isn’t absolute though, rough spots like the boundary between Mach and the BSD components still exist.

Re: Microsoft submits Linux kernel patches to enable complete Hyper-V on Linux

#70

Post by qwertox »

aunty_helen wrote: post #3

>Windows 10 is on a path to becoming a hybrid Windows/Linux system This sounds promising, something closer to OSX would give apple competition for devs like myself that want a linux based system and a fluffy "it-just-works" gui

I'm not sure if Windows 10's GUI is still a fluffy "it-just-works" GUI.

Windows 7 did make a lot of sense, but configuring Windows 10 has become confusing. You have two versions of the configuration tools, the legacy one and the new HTML-like one, and the latter seems to be almost unusable because of how it is structured. Not to mention that the HTML-variant doesn't work when you VNC into a laptop which has its lid closed and the attached monitor is turned off. Then it's not possible to scroll, because the pages are broken, as if the HTML-renderer is unable to obtain proper display metrics.

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