

Microsoft previews VM Depot, an app store for Azure - ridruejo
http://vmdepot.msopentech.com/

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_stephan
Without extensive documentation I'm not sure it's easier to carefully review
these preconfigured images than it is to setup one yourself from scratch.

Instead of VM images I wish there was a modular, heavily documented and peer-
reviewed script-based solution for turning e.g. an Ubuntu default install into
a hardened LAMP server configured according to best-practices.

~~~
ridruejo
It depends for what you want the images. In most cases, mainstream users don't
care how the images are set up internally. They just want a Dokuwiki or
Redmine instance and images like this allow them to quickly have one up and
running that they can use right away, without having to read a lot of
documentation or tinker with scripts.

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freehunter
These kind of quick-installs are nice as long as you double check that they
meet all your needs. I'm not familiar with Azure, but I've used these on
Dreamhost and Linode. I've noticed in some cases that the quick-install things
can be out of date or set up with poor security practices, which is why you
should double check them, but just to get up and going it's a great service.

One thing I noticed, and I'm not sure if this is intentional or due to
technical reasons or what, is that all of these scripts are for Linux-based
OSes. I'd expect to see at least a few Windows scripts in there too.

~~~
ridruejo
Dreamhost, etc. use Fantastico-style scripts for shared hosting setup of apps.
The Bitnami apps there are kept up to date and setup with best security
practices in mind. BitNami also offers Windows and OS X apps at bitnami.org,
but the focus of the VM Depot is on Linux (Disclaimer, I am one of the Bitnami
developers :)

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csears
It was nice of them to provide an additional back button.

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codeape
So far none of the available images use Windows. All are GNU/Linux, most
Ubuntu.

Since this is Microsoft I had expected to see some Windows VMs. I assume Azure
supports Windows?

~~~
_stephan
Is it legal to publish Windows VM images?

~~~
scarmig
Certainly--there are several legal ones floating around to allow testing of
the IEs.

Apple is the only company that forbids virtualizing its OS (unless you're
virtualizing it on OSX).

~~~
_stephan
AFAIK, the VMs for testing IE are published by Microsoft.

In general I don't think you're allowed to publicly redistribute Windows VM
images. Publishing a customized VM image in the AWS or Azure image depots may
be allowed though.

~~~
pjmlp
AWS has Windows images available for sharing.

[http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide...](http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/Shared_WinAMI.html)

~~~
runarb
Dos anybody knows if AWS has some special arrangement with Microsoft? For
example do they collect licensing fees on behalf of Microsoft when you run the
WM and thereby are except from the normal licensing rules?

Or can I also make public available Windows WM images and publish them legally
from my website?

~~~
ebrescia
Yes, they have a special arrangement with Microsoft. That is why you will see
that it is more expensive to run Windows-based instances on AWS than it is to
run the free Linux OSs (Amazon Linux and Ubuntu, for example.) You can put
together and publish your own AMIs for Amazon based on Windows, but users
can't download and use them (as with all AMIs) - they just deploy them to
Amazon and then they would be paying the additional hourly fees.

