Anyone who has installed Linux on Virtual PC / Virtual Server knows that while yes, Linux is supported on these platforms, and yes, it does run well after getting it setup - installation can be a downright pain. It is for this reason that I take great pride in the fact that installing Linux on the Hyper-V beta release is a breeze.

Armstrong then lists the steps needed to get Fedora 8 to "just work" in a virtualized environment via Hyper-V - - the virtualization technology embedded into Server 2008, due out later this year. At the end of his post, Armstrong writes, "there were no special options / kernel arguments / hardware configuration involved. All very straight forward."

It's now coming into focus just how busy Microsoft has been over the past year in building out interoperability between its flagship server technology and Linux. In addition to time and effort, it's also become clear that Microsoft is investing the big bucks, too. (Novell, which makes the SUSE Linux that competes with Fedora, has disclosed that Microsoft paid it $355.6 million last year as part of their interoperability partnership.)