RE: [EXTERNAL] [PATCH 0/6] Remove support for Windows Server 2012/2012R2 & Win8/Win8.1 versions of Hyper-V

From: Long Li <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2026 1:33 PM
> >
> > From: Michael Kelley <[email protected]>
> >
> > Linux code for running as a Hyper-V guest includes special cases for ru=
nning on
> > Hyper-V in WS2012/2012R2 and Windows 8/8.1. These versions were initial=
ly
> > released 14 years ago, and official support ended in 2023 (unless a cus=
tomer
> > has contracted for extended security updates). Given the release of sub=
sequent
> > versions with improved functionality, there's no need to continue to su=
pport the
> > latest Linux kernels on these versions of Hyper-V. If someone is runnin=
g Linux on
> > one of these older Hyper-V versions and doesn't want to upgrade, they c=
an
> > continue to do so as presumably they don't want upgrade the Linux versi=
on
> > either.
>=20
> This patch set has significant implication for customer running older Hyp=
er-V versions.
> There are probably a large number out there.

I don't have any hard data one way or the other, but given their age and la=
ck
of support, I'm doubtful that there are a large number of customers running
WS2012 or Windows 8 for any purpose. Even fewer would be using Hyper-V
to run Linux guests. Of course, the Azure fleet was upgraded many years ago=
.

Before submitting this patch set, I had an offline email thread with Wei Li=
u
(Linux maintainer for Hyper-V code), and one of the Hyper-V dev leads, abou=
t
removing the WS2012/Win8 Hyper-V support. Wei checked within Microsoft,
and came back to me that it was OK to do this. Wei could give you the detai=
ls
offline. Perhaps there's internal data on lingering usage that informed tha=
t
decision.

FWIW, you may remember that I did something similar for Windows Server
2008/Win7 back in 2022. See [1]. To my knowledge, there was zero customer
pushback from that removal. While WS2012 Hyper-V was certainly more
feature capable than the original WS2008 Hyper-V, anyone who cares would
have updated at least to WS2016 Hyper-V as a mature baseline.

>=20
> Is this clearly communicated to all the customers in the field? Is there =
a link from official
> Microsoft statements on support statement of this:
> "they can continue to do so as presumably they don't want upgrade the Lin=
ux version
> either."
>=20
> Please point to the statement that they can't upgrade Linux. A link in th=
e commit
> message will be helpful.

The only external statements I'm aware of are the Microsoft Support Lifecyc=
le
calendars that show Windows 8 support ending Jan 12, 2016 when it was super=
seded
by Windows 8.1, and then Windows 8.1 support ending Jan 10, 2023. For Windo=
ws
Server 2012 and 2012R2, the end of support was Oct 10, 2023.

Michael

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-hyperv/1651509391-2058-1-git-send-email-m=
[email protected]/