Here Comes Virtual PC 2004; There Goes Linux Support

[Joshua]

Next week, Microsoft will finalize the code for Microsoft Virtual
PC 2004, the most recent version of the virtual machine (VM)
technology the company purchased from Connectix earlier this year.
I've been a Virtual PC customer for years, and although I was happy to
see Microsoft select what I feel is the superior VM technology, I'm
now distressed to see how the company is changing the program.
Previously, Virtual PC was an excellent platform for testing
alternative OSs such as Linux. But Microsoft has killed support for
Linux and other non-Microsoft systems, although the company curiously
still supports OS/2. The reason? Microsoft is positioning Virtual PC
as a way to run legacy Windows NT and Windows 9x applications in VM
environments on modern Windows versions, an interesting addition to
its consolidation strategy. Although I understand why the company is
doing this, I think it stinks.

[spigidygak]

wow. . . I knew it was only a bad thing when ms aquired conectix. . . but didn't think they would screw it up like that. That really blows, its always fun running on os x, windows, linux, beos, and more all at once just to say you could, hehe.

[bachviet]

That really sucks since one of the major selling point of Virtual PC is that it supports many platforms including *nix.

[seqiro]

From what I've been reading, the *nix and other OSes WILL still run under Virtual PC 2004, Microsoft just won't support them.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1378274,00.asp

[topane]

It's an x86 emulator. *nix will run as long as M$ doesn't put in any code to break them. Plus, there's always VMWare.