Glacier is dominated by psychrotolerants, and a relatively simple ecosystem consisting of mainly microorganisms and glacial environment. The microorganisms in glacier include virus, bacteria, actinomyces, fungi, yeasts and algae. Some of the glacial viruses are potentially harmful to human health. This paper is a literature summary and study on progresses of community and quantitative distribution of microorganisms with altitude and ice depth and in the different geographic glaciers. Some of the glacial microorganisms exhibit ubiquitous dispersal, while the others just occurs in the specifical glaciers and exhibit endemic species. With the altitudinal increase, it appears ice, ice-snow and snow ecosystem environments, and forms the different patterns of microbial communities on glacier. This relates to the differences in ecosystem conditions and the prevalent wind direction. Thus, the predominant species can indicate the glacial environment. The quantitative distribution of microorganisms is influenced not only by the glacial environments such as light density, hydrological and nutritional condition, but also by the snowfall and biological accumulation. The bacterial biomass closely corresponds to the concentration of mineral particle in ice. The literature survey suggested that there are profoundly prospects of glacial microoranisms in genetic diversity, microbial implication of climate and encironment, geobiochemical cycle, microbial responsive mechnism to glacial environmental changes and exobiology and ecological and social significance.