Can your OS do this?

This post is part of a series of articles I am writing about SUSE Studio and software appliances.

In previous posts I’ve told you why software appliances are great: they simplify software installation and reduce support costs. And they make it easier for prospective customers to try out a new application without going through a complex setup procedure.

We think these reasons are pretty compelling, but it’s always nice to have outside validation.

So I was excited to discover that Microsoft has been actively shipping software appliances for years by distributing demos of Microsoft software as VirtualPC images.

For example, there is a demo appliance containing the Microsoft Dynamics CRM application, and here is a Windows SharePoint Services appliance.

If you look through microsoft.com you can find many other examples. Clearly Microsoft sees the value in distributing demos as software appliances.

But no matter how hard you look, you won’t find many examples of Microsoft ISVs doing the same thing.

Why not?

Because in order to ship a demo appliance, a Windows ISV would need to preinstall their application on Windows and ship both together. And to do that, they would need a Windows redistribution license that allows them to preinstall, configure, and tune Windows.

But only a few larger Microsoft partners have that — and redistribution certainly isn’t allowed under the Windows EULA.

This is one way in which software appliances play to Linux’s strengths. Linux is open source and anyone can redistribute a Linux software appliance. Linux vendors are more flexible. And Novell offers a complete software appliance program that gives ISVs comfort that they can deliver our operating system with full support.

For a Windows ISV, selling your software is a lot tougher. To even try an evaluation, your users need to get Windows, apply patches, install prerequisites, install the application, configure it, setup the database, and spend hours rebooting. If this isn’t an impediment to sales, I don’t know what is.

So does this mean that Microsoft ISVs are left out in the cold? Not quite.

Thanks to Mono, many .NET applications run easily on Linux. There is even a Visual Studio plugin which makes it possible to port your application to Linux and generate a Linux appliance of your application without leaving Visual Studio.

Is it possible that Microsoft will adjust their programs to make it easier for their ISVs to ship software appliances? I think it’s inevitable. Software appliances are a big market and the advantages are enormous to users and developers.

But it’s not clear how long it will take. And it probably won’t be an easy change for Microsoft to do, since it blurs the line between two major forms of partners: redistributors and developers.

In the meantime, I think this is a nice example of how powerful it is to have Linux under-the-hood.

Under-the-hood is an area where open source has proven itself time and time again. Modular, open source  software can save you a lot of time as you build or sell your product. Lots of web sites have come online faster and cheaper with open source than they would have been able to otherwise. And now traditional software vendors who actually ship software can benefit as well.

Software appliances will become known as yet another way to play to Linux’s strengths.

Other articles in this series:

• SUSE Studio 1.0
• What is a software appliance?
• Running Linux in the browser