I see that NixOS has images available for some of the popular clouds, but not 
for Azure. I'd love to see a NixOS image on VM 
Depot<http://vmdepot.msopentech.com/>. VM Depot is a community managed 
repository of virtual machines for Azure. We have something like 8 different 
Linux distros and around 1700 images built on those distros (ranging from 
developer stacks through to end user applications).

The first step to getting folks to publish NixOS based images is to have a base 
distribution of NixOS available and, preferably, updated every time there is an 
official release of NixOS. Is anyone here interested in creating and upload an 
image to VM Depot? I'm happy to help guide the process.

Some common questions for the curious:


1)      Does it cost anything to store an image on VM Depot? No - all storage 
costs are paid by Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc (my employer)

2)      Does it cost anything to publish an image on VM Depot? Probably not - 
You will need an Azure subscription to temporarily store the image and there 
will be bandwidth charges for the initial copy. However, there are mechanisms 
by which we can ensure open source projects have sufficient Azure credits to do 
this without receiving a bill. Create a free Windows Azure trial 
subscription<http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/?WT.mc_id=AA4C1C935>
 to get started straight away (one month, $200 credit)

3)      Are there an restrictions on what can be uploaded to VM Depot? - Short 
answer - if its open source then no there are no restrictions. Long answer is 
in the Terms of Use http://vmdepot.msopentech.com/ToU.htm

4)      Why would I want to upload an image to VM Depot? It is easy for people 
to deploy a VM from VM Depot to Azure. This means it is easy for people to 
experiment with your project. More people experimenting means more users, more 
users means more potential contributors to the project and more potential 
customers for those employing contributors.

5)      How do I get started creating a new VM based on an existing 
distribution? See 
http://msopentech.com/blog/2014/05/14/deploy-customize-freebsd-virtual-machine-image-microsoft-azure/
 for a description of the general process (need not be FreeBSD as the starting 
image, the process is the same for any of the other images available)

6)      How do I get started creating a new base distribution VM? 
http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/virtual-machines-linux-tutorial/

7)      Who can I contact for assistance? Ross Gardler - 
[email protected]

Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc.
A subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation
MS Open Tech is hiring<http://aka.ms/msopentechjobs>! Ask me for details if 
anyone you know is interested (http://aka.ms/msopentechjobs)

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