My good friend and partner in crime, Jason Perlow is working on (as I'm writing this) a new Linux distribution that is Hyper-V ready. It is a modified OpenSUSE 11.1 that includes the Linux Integration Components (ICs) from Microsoft. He'll have a link to it on his blog in a day or two for everyone to use.

So, Jason is baking a new Linux distribution that he calls the Jason Server and he's using OpenSUSE because it's free and he can build a distribution easily on Novell's SUSE Studio. The Linux ICs allow you to install Linux seamlessly onto a Hyper-V server and have everything just work out of the box, so to speak.

He tells me personally that he doesn't really want to become a distribution maintainer. However, I can't think of a better person to do it. He's messed with Linux for a lot of years, has been involved with the highest level of the Linux world, wrote for Linux Magazine for a decade and is a respected writer and commentator on all things Linux. Who better to head-up a new distribution?

I tried to get him to name his first distribution OpenSUSE Argonaut Linux but he hasn't embraced that idea as yet. I thought that he should create a whole set of distributions with his special touch called the Argonauts. It has a ring to it--Jason and the Argonauts. I don't know, maybe it's just me but it sounds good.

I'd like to hear some feedback on the fact that this longtime Linux guy is basically birthing and raising penguins to swim in the icy waters in the Sea of Redmond. What do you think of that?

And to Jason, "Can I get fries with that distro or maybe a life jacket for my penguin?"