Updates to Microsoft’s Services for Unix (SFU) are designed to help Windows compete with Linux as a platform for replacing Unix. The incremental feature improvements and free availability will make this interoperability product an attractive tool in markets around the world—particularly in Asia, where Linux is making inroads.

What Is SFU?

SFU is a set of tools that help customers manage a mixed Unix and Windows environment and migrate or port Unix- and POSIX-compliant applications to Windows.

SFU assists in the following areas:

Interoperability. SFU supports running important Unix services on Windows. For example, it supports the Network File System (NFS) as both a client and a server, enabling customers to transfer files between Unix and Windows. Customers can also use Windows Active Directory as a Network Information System (NIS) server for security and configuration information.

Manageability. SFU supports single sign-on and password synchronization between Windows and Unix, enabling users to have the same ID and password on both systems for easy access.

Application porting. To help customers migrate or port applications from Unix to Windows, SFU includes the following:

• The Interix subsystem, a Unix environment that supports Unix commands (including utilities such as bind and ftp), command shells (such as the popular C and Korn shells), and key utilities (like the text editor, vi)
• Unix and POSIX APIs, which allow most Unix- and POSIX-compliant applications to run on the Interix subsystem
• An SDK that includes development tools and libraries to help port Unix applications to Windows.

What’s New?

SFU version 3.5 includes improved localization, support for threaded processes, expanded X Windows support, and improved utilities.

Localization. The Interix subsystem provides built-in support for more code sets, such as ASCII, EUC-JP (Extended Unix Code-Japan), and Unicode, and multiple locales, such as ja_JP.EUC-JP. A supplied utility can be used to define additional locales, and the SDK provides libraries with new functions that support wide-character sets, allowing SFU to be used more easily in important markets such as Japan and Korea.

Support for threaded processes. The Interix subsystem now supports POSIX-compliant process threads (pthreads), which should ease porting of Unix applications that use this API.

Expanded X Windows support. The SDK has been updated to conform to the X11 release 6.6 specification of the X Windows graphical user interface system.

Utility and service upgrades. Several services and utilities have been upgraded, including the following:

• Bind domain name service agent (to version 9.2.2)
• FTP file transfer service (to version 3.2)
• Gcc C compiler (to version 3.3)
• Gdb debugger (to version 5.3)
• Sendmail e-mail agent (version 8.12.8 p1).

In addition, the performance of services, such as NFS, has been improved.

Availability and Resources

SFU will be supported as part of Windows Server 2003, Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter Editions.

Microsoft is reducing the price of SFU 3.5 from US$99 to a free download, which should make the tools even more attractive to customers and partners.

For more information, and to download Services for Unix, see www.microsoft.com/windows/sfu.

For more information on migrating applications from Unix, see the Microsoft Patterns and Practices Unix Application Migration Guide at msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnucmg/html/ucmglp.asp.