Microsoft submits Linux kernel patches for a 'complete virtualization stack' with Linux and Hyper-V
- Reference: 1600173787
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/09/15/microsoft_submits_linux_kernel_patches/
- Source link:
The [1]patches are designated "RFC" (Request for comments) and are a minimal implementation presented for discussion.
The key change is that with the patched kernel, Linux will run as the Hyper-V root partition. In the [2]Hyper-V architecture , the root partition has direct access to hardware and creates child partitions for the VMs it hosts. "Just think of it like Xen's [3]Dom0 ," said Microsoft principal software engineer Wei Liu.
Hyper-V's architecture is more similar to Xen than it is to KVM or to VMware's ESXi, and Liu acknowledged that "we drew inspiration from the Xen code in Linux," specifically for code handing interrupts. Until now, the Hyper-V root partition had to run Windows.
[4]
In the Hyper-V architecture, the root partition has direct access to the hardware and creates child partitions for the VMs. It runs on top of the privileged ring -1 Microsoft Hypervisor
Microsoft has also ported Intel's open-source [5]Cloud Hypervisor , a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) written in Rust that normally runs on KVM, the hypervisor that is built into the Linux kernel. Cloud Hypervisor itself is currently in "very early pre-alpha stage".
Even when Linux is the root partition, it will still run on top of Microsoft's hypervisor, a thin layer running with ring -1 privileges. It will no longer be necessary to run Windows on that hypervisor, though, enabling Microsoft to call the new arrangement "a complete virtualization stack with Linux".
DirectX comes to Linux (via WSL2): Microsoft unveils tricks needed to flash a GPU at a penguin [6]READ MORE
With these changes, Microsoft likely has its Azure cloud infrastructure in mind. Azure runs more Linux than Windows, as acknowledged back in July 2019 by Microsoft engineer Sasha Levin who [7]said : "The Linux usage on our cloud has surpassed Windows." The proportion of Linux workloads looks set to increase with the trend towards Kubernetes, which is primarily a Linux technology. Linux already runs well on Hyper-V with a Windows root partition, but making this a complete Linux stack may improve performance.
Microsoft is also busy improving Linux support in Windows 10, thanks to the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL 2), and now ships a Linux kernel with Windows. GUI support has been promised. WSL 2 also uses Hyper-V, and Windows 10 is on a path to becoming a hybrid Windows/Linux system, though as of now this is mainly of interest to developers.
Microsoft's [8]Ignite virtual shindig is next week and we can expect the company to say more about its Linux plans then. ®
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[1] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20200914112802.80611-1-wei.liu@kernel.org/T/#me859932ac743c7d96aa06f32976723d357196086
[2] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/reference/hyper-v-architecture
[3] https://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Dom0
[4] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/09/15/hv_architecture.gif
[5] https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/20/microsoft_directx_wsl_linux/
[7] https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/06/27/7
[8] https://myignite.microsoft.com/
[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: "Windows 10 is on a path to becoming a hybrid Windows/Linux system"
Can't wait for the Windows 10 UI to be an option in Linux Installations (sic)
I wonder what the takeup would be?
The way forward?
If you can't beat them, join them to you at the hip.
Taking this with the recent [1]Ubuntu Community Council and [2]kernel maintainer recruitment problems, it sadly looks like Linux may have passed its peak as an independent alternative operating system.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/14/ubuntu_community_council_revived/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/30/hard_to_find_linux_maintainers_says_torvalds/
Re: The way forward?
> ...looks like Linux may have passed its peak...
I don't see this. The Linux folks would most certainly fight against some "MS-Windoization" of the kernel (anyone mentioning Poetter-ware in response will get killed).
One could even argue that MS does realize that Windows alone simply doesn't cut it beyond pure gaming and Office-whatever work.
I also like the thought of Ballmer throwing chairs in futile rage 8^)
Re: The way forward?
The Linux folks would most certainly fight against some "MS-Windoization" of the kernel
No ...
The Linux folks would will most certainly fight against some any "MS-Windoization" of the kernel.
There, I fixed it for you.
I'm volunteering for front line service.
Mine's the one with the flame-thrower pack and a bottle of napalm in my pocket.
O.
Re: The way forward?
How much longer do you think the Windows licence fee will justify the cost of running the Windows infrastructure for patching etc and deployment, coding teams, even the website? Seems to me that architecting Windows out of the world would be a shrewd business move so that in 10-15 years nobody will notice when it's all turned off. Azure is the cash cow going forwards and Windows will increasingly become a cost rather than a profit centre
Re: The way forward?
IT trends don't last forever.
Azure won't be a cash cow forever, and assuming Windows was eradicated from earth tomorrow, there's no guarantee Azure total profits over the years will beat those of Windows.
Note
Anybody is free to use Linux, also MS, as Linus pointed out more than twenty years ago. They could also fork the kernel but I doubt they will, they could also start to deliver dual boot Windows/Linux to OEMs, there is no law against becoming smart regardless of how long it took.
Increasingly, I don't care what the underlying OS is.
If it's not do-able from a browser, pretty much it's not worth the effort to support the infrastructure to run it yourself.
If someone said "start up a company (of any size)" to me today, I wouldn't even consider non-web services, whether locally-hosted or not. The problem is once you go down the route of something tied to the OS or machine, you're never going to come back out of that. Start without any OS dependency and you can chop and change as you like.
Schools, especially, have gone from on-site, to managed services, to everything in the web/cloud... even their internal MIS systems. Thousands of users growing up with no more capability than a filtered, monitored, browser will allow them, while staff increasingly move all their stuff to online services anyway. The end-device hardly matters any more (I actually have more Chromebooks on site than Windows machines, and that's been the case for a while now).
It's 2020. Being tied to an OS because of some clunky bit of software that isn't cross-platform and wants to draw on your desktop? Very old hat.
And I work entirely in IT. I'm literally talking myself back from a techy, in-house, specialist, business-critical job to a "keyboard shuffler" where so long as people have a compliant browser, everything else is someone else's problem.
And dual-boot? Very old hat. Who cares what the underlying OS is, it should be able to run the "other OS" in a VM at pretty much the same speed. Our server infrastructure is entirely like that - I have 50% Linux and 50% Windows VMs on a HyperV setup - so why can't the clients? The servers do far more than the clients ever would, with far more a performance requirement.
It's about time we just moved up one layer from "That only works on Windows" or even "that's x86 only".
The problem is once you go down the route of something tied to the OS or machine, you're never going to come back out of that. Start without any OS dependency and you can chop and change as you like.
...
It's 2020. Being tied to an OS because of some clunky bit of software that isn't cross-platform and wants to draw on your desktop? Very old hat.
But you're happy to be tied into all the proprietary cloud services at the backend? Have you ever tried migrating between, say, Office 365 and Google Apps?
"Windows 10 is on a path to becoming a hybrid Windows/Linux system"
taking it easy, I see.