VM Depot - Stepping into a new era

From last year, Windows Azure started to support any kind of system on Virtual Machines. We can install a Linux operating system on them without any kind of problem. Also we have some images created by default, with different operating system, that can be used by anybody.
This year we have a new feature related to these images.  Windows Azure offers VM Depot. This is a place where anybody can upload his image of operation system and share with others. For example we can create and share with others an image of Ubuntu that is preconfigured to run different application like Redmine, Moodle,  Glitorious and so on.
A nice feature of this system is the rating and feedback mechanism. Each user can rate an image and give feedback. In this way people can select more easily an image for themselves. Not only this, but you can take an image, change it and share it again with others.
When you want to deploy an image of a VM machine from Windows Azure, VM Depot will generate the command line that you need to run on Cloud to install the specific image on your virtual image. Publishing your machine is simpler than deploying it. You need to set a name, description and a URL path where the VHD is published. 
You don’t need to have a Windows Azure account to be able to navigate, get the deployments script or publish a new virtual machine.
The real value of this service is for the companies that have a product that can be run on cloud also. Image that you are a software company that has a great product for online payment. Your product is developed in C++ and runs on Ubuntu. You will be able to publish an image of your VM machine for all your customers very easily. In this way your customer will have images of your server pre-configured.
Using this new service we can share and deploy images for Windows Azure very easily.