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Red Hat, Novell To Package Xen
robyannetta writes "Watch out VMware and Microsoft. Here comes
Xen, an open-source virtualization for the Linux environment being pushed by Red Hat and Novell. Xen has also joined forces with leading Linux distributors, chip vendors and platform vendors to create a consortium that will more broadly enable open-source virtualization development and deployment." We've covered Xen before, but it's cool to see the momentum behind it growing, as more choice is a Good Thing.
Xen won't run an OS unless that OS has been especially ported to Xen. I.e. it is ideal for running linux, BSD, and not much else. It is also x86 only (I can't use it as a MOL replacement).
It has one huge benefit over VMWare, it is extremely fast. The virtual machine has so close to the performance of the host that it would be reasonable to do such things as: implement a 100% reliable server on your computer and then implement an up-to-date desktop machine inside it. Implement virtual hosting on cheap x86 hardware. Run two distros simultaneously, etc.
Personally I think running a reliable server on the same hardware as your unreliable desktop would be nice. Have the one machine always work correctly for handling mail, printing, web serving, etc. But still up to date.
Back in the 70's, CP/CMS on the 360 architecture was open-source. CP originally was a pure emulator: privileged machine instructions caused interrupts and were then emulated by CP. So we used to debug entire CP/CMS operating systems on top of CP, which was pretty cool. IBM eventually released a commercial version of CP/CMS called VM370.
Meanwhile a bunch of independent companies, mostly time-sharing outfits, figured out that emulating privileged instructions was, well, dumb and slow. Instead, if you modified CMS to use traps instead of executing emulated privileged instructions, it could run many times faster.
Which is why commercial timesharing outfits like National CSS, etc., were routinely able to support 250+ users on 370/168's, roughly three times the user load that IBM could support with VM370. That, and the fact that National CSS bought up every single drum drive they could find as paging devices. Ridiculously fast for the time -- nearly zero seek time, and delightfully high RPM's -- but when the bearings froze, those suckers would often burst right out of the glass case and blow holes in concrete walls.
Anyway Xen is not a new idea. It's a very old (and good) idea.
Does VMware's license forbid its use for comparison purposes? If so, it's up to you (VMware) to change it. The ball is in your court.
If not, why don't you give them a copy to benchmark with? It's not like you'll lose a sale, so the out-of-pocket cost is effectively zero. In fact, it's probably a net gain because of the less-than-favorable publicity they generate. Again, the ball is in your court.
Or, if can't or won't give the s/w away, why don't you publish some benchmarks? Yes, again, the ball is in your court.
Let us (the Greater Slashdot Community ) know what you plan to do.