When comparing OnLive Desktop vs Microsoft Azure, the Slant community recommends Microsoft Azure for most people. In the question“What are the best cloud hosted desktop services?” Microsoft Azure is ranked 4th while OnLive Desktop is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Microsoft Azure is:
Most, if not all, of the major cloud PaaS providers offer a Linux variant to host your applications. Windows Azure, being a Microsoft product obviously, supports Windows in addition to Linux.
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Pros
Pro Supports running Windows Server
Most, if not all, of the major cloud PaaS providers offer a Linux variant to host your applications. Windows Azure, being a Microsoft product obviously, supports Windows in addition to Linux.
Pro Linux Instances
The Azure platform has been supporting Linux VMs for a while now and has Linux distributions readily available in the catalogue.
Pro Free Tier
Microsoft Azure offers a Free Tier option that allows you to spawn a BST-1 instance that has 750 free hours.
Cons
Con Discontinued
This service was absorbed by Sony and no longer available to the public.
Con Expensive
Even though in the context of Pay-as-you-go services, it's cost effective, but monthly pricing for these services are quite higher than competitors.