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QEMU Accelerator Achieves Near-Native Performance
An anonymous reader writes "QEMU is a generic and open source processor emulator which achieves a good emulation speed by using dynamic translation. Its sporting a new module called the 'Accelerator' which can achieve near native speeds, and currently runs on Linux 2.4.x and 2.6.x kernels. This means you could theoretically run Windows (or another OS) on a Linux machine at near native speeds without buying a commercial emulator. The catch is that although QEMU is released under various open source licenses, the Accelerator uses a free (as in beer) license because the module is a 'closed source proprietary product.' Fabrice Bellard does mention that he would consider open sourcing the Accelerator under certain conditions."
CherryOS has been released. It's called PearPC http://pearpc.sourceforge.net/
Open Sourcing the QEMU Accelerator Technology ?
As a supporter of open source, the author accepts to open source the QEMU Accelerator Technology provided a company invests enough money to support the project and to recompense the author from the potential loss of revenue. Interested companies can look at the roadmap and make suggestions to the author.
If it actually achieves near-native performance right now, how much better can it get? And since it's already gratis, would anyone want to pay for one that achives actual native performance?
I don't think there's much money up for grabs here, to be honest. But that depends on how good it really is right now.
Life is Reality
It's only reasonable, considering the time and effort that this guy put into the program... wasn't ibm pushing out money to linux ? Stuff like this should be funded.
First off, QEMU is x86.
Second, CherryOS is a ripoff of PearPC. The reason for the CherryOS delay is most likely that it's violating the licensing of PearPC and the developer is worried about litigation.
Why not release under a dual licence as mysql have done ... they seem to rake in money while giving the product away. Yes: most people will have it for free, but some will want to pay (to include in a proprietary bundle/...) - the extra market/awareness that open sourcing it will bring will mean that he will get a slice of a larger cake.
This means you could theoretically run Windows on a Linux machine at near native speeds
Theoretically, does it work or not?
Actually QEMU runs on x86, x86_64, PowerPC, Alpha, Sparc32, ARM, S390, Sparc64, ia64, and m68k to different degrees. The X86 emulation is the only one completely working, but he PowerPC emulation in QEMU is good enough to boot PowerPC Linux, hopefully soon you will be able to boot OSX on a X86 via QEMU, and hopefully the speed will be at least 1/10th.
I sometimes want to play old DOS games on my P3 machine. A lot of these games work in Real Mode, period. And they often can't do sound except on specific sound cards. I can:
- Get a second machine for game playing. I don't spend that much time playing games. At least I hope not...
- Reboot to DOS every time I want to run a game. Inconvenient, and the sound doesn't always work.
- Fire up VMWare. Except I can't afford a copy right now...
- Run DOSBox, which emulates not only a 286-class processor, but other legacy hardware such as sound cards and Hercules Graphics.
DOSBox is a really impressive bit of software, but it demands a lot of cycles to get the job done. (Typically, 75% of the CPU time on my P3 when I do VGA games full screen. Playing in a window is impossible unless I step down the color depth of my display.) So it's not good for much except real- and protected-mode games. An open-source emulator that doesn't have that kind of overhead would be very useful.A closed-source module could contain stolen proprietary code
For that matter, an open-source module could also contain stolen proprietary code.
I hope this will be treated with caution until it can be ascertained to be fully legitimate...
I hope you never use any code which you didn't write yourself.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
Oh, so it's Virtual PC for PCs. Doesn't Microsoft already make that?
Not since Marie-Antoinette played milkmaid has looking simple and honest been so fake and complicated.
This isn't insightful, they have no obligation to you to sell systems without Windows. Go to a car dealership and ask them where are their models without engines are. Then when they look at you strange say, "sorry, in the market for a cheap new car, but want my own engine and not paying you extra for it when I am not going to use it." Makes you sound crazy now doesn't it. You sound just as crazy when you say that about a little computer, especially considering you already know they don't a configuration like that and you know exactly where you can get one.
They don't care if you don't buy from them, you just make yourself look like an idiot.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
Faster than on Windows? That has not been my experience at all.
Maybe 80-90% as fast (just a seat-of-the-pants guesstimate)...
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
The author writes:
As a supporter of open source, the author accepts to open source the QEMU Accelerator Technology provided a company invests enough money to support the project and to recompense the author from the potential loss of revenue. Interested companies can look at the roadmap and make suggestions to the author.
What matters isn't really the potential loss of revenue, but the expected loss of revenue, i.e., large amount of money multiplied by the low probability of actually succeeding.
I'm sure the accelerator is skillfully written, but I think chances of turning QEMU+Accelerator into something commercially successful are next to nil. Why? Foremost because the market already has VirtualPC and VMware in it, created and maintained by big companies with deep pockets, lots of lawyers, and large patent portfolios. Oh, and then there are coLinux, Xen, and UML that he would be competing with as well.
To compete, he'd have to get startup funding, a management team, developers, support, and, worst of all, sales people: a lot of work, a lot of money, and next to impossible if you don't either get a lot of buzz or know the right people. Then he'd have to develop a product; a product isn't just a working piece of code, it's documentation, training, tutorials, travel, presentations. People don't expect that from FOSS, but they do expect it as soon as they pay a couple of bucks for something. Even if he does all that, the most likely outcome is still that the startup fails. But even if it succeeded, he would probably only end up with a small slice of a moderately successful company (competition and all that), and only after spending several years of his life doing things he probably doesn't enjoy.
I think people underestimate how hard it is to commercialize something, even something that is really good and novel (his software may be really good, but it isn't novel).
I think his best bet would be release it under a dual license (GPL/commercial) right away, while people are paying attention, and build a consulting business and commercial licensing around it. He won't become an instant billionaire that way, but if he has a worthwhile product, it can be a steady source of good money doing mostly what he enjoys. If he sits on the software too long waiting for a sugar daddy, it will be less and less likely that he will be able to get anything out of it.
Oh, and in case you are wondering whether my argument is disingenuous and I just want to get a free virtual machine, it isn't: I already have VirtualPC and VMware, and I actually prefer the various user mode Linux solutions at this point.
He was talking about the accelerator, not QEMU in its entirety.
I guess today is a passable day to die.
the "accelerator", not qemu!
m l
the "accelerator" refers to the accelerator module, kqemu, which can be found here: http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/qemu-accel.ht
it is a -module- for qemu.