Windows Server is basically useless in the modern era of containers and cloud computing. If they’re ever going to compete in that space long term, they need a minimal viable version of Windows that can scale however customers want.
They also have embedded Windows, which is the type of thing that runs on ATMs or IoT devices. Not sure why anyone would use it instead of Linux but I guess the license fees are worth having someone to call (or blame) for some companies.
I’m not sure I follow that server is useless. In the SMB and Enterprise, it’s still required for a domain/exchange, user management, software distribution, etc.
Yea, it can be virtualized, and is, even in SMB. It’s pretty standard to run a VMware host even there - it’s a better cost against utilization. More importantly, virtualized server provides better uptime, better load balancing/management, a much better backup process, and brings a bit of disaster recovery capability to the SMB space.
Of course those sizes are without a kernel. Typical everything-included distro kernels are generally a few hundred MiB as they include drivers for everything that might be needed, but a custom build for known hardware can reduce that to just a few MiB.
I think this could be useful as a server OS. If you wanted to run 1 specific piece of software as efficiently as possible, you could start with this DOS system and add in only what you need.
What’s the point of this? The article managed to miss that somehow
I guess for containerization?
Windows Server is basically useless in the modern era of containers and cloud computing. If they’re ever going to compete in that space long term, they need a minimal viable version of Windows that can scale however customers want.
They also have embedded Windows, which is the type of thing that runs on ATMs or IoT devices. Not sure why anyone would use it instead of Linux but I guess the license fees are worth having someone to call (or blame) for some companies.
Windows server is still wildly used for ADDS.
I don’t think windows server is that threatened by containers.
ADDS is basically the only thing I might use Windows Server for.
What’s adds?
Active directory domain services.
I’m not sure I follow that server is useless. In the SMB and Enterprise, it’s still required for a domain/exchange, user management, software distribution, etc.
Yea, it can be virtualized, and is, even in SMB. It’s pretty standard to run a VMware host even there - it’s a better cost against utilization. More importantly, virtualized server provides better uptime, better load balancing/management, a much better backup process, and brings a bit of disaster recovery capability to the SMB space.
Removed by mod
The ubuntu:24.04 Docker image is only 77.30 MiB.
alpine:3.19.0 is 7.38 MiB.
Of course those sizes are without a kernel. Typical everything-included distro kernels are generally a few hundred MiB as they include drivers for everything that might be needed, but a custom build for known hardware can reduce that to just a few MiB.
Why not?
I think this could be useful as a server OS. If you wanted to run 1 specific piece of software as efficiently as possible, you could start with this DOS system and add in only what you need.