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Linux Gains Two New Virtualization Solutions

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the almost-as-good-as-the-real-thing dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The upcoming 2.6.23 kernel has gained two new virtualization solutions. According to KernelTrap, both Xen and lguest have been merged into the mainline kernel. These two virtualization solutions join the already merged KVM, offering Linux multiple ways to run multiple virtual machines each running their own OS."

5 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So, will it run Windows? by realdodgeman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    KVM (have been in the kernel since 2.6.20) already runs windows.

  2. Could somebody clear this up for us? by Tribbin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What are the pro's for heaving two implementations of, seemingly, the same solution?

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    1. Re:Could somebody clear this up for us? by QuantumG · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually, it doesn't work like that. What actually happens is that the code which is maintained poorly gets dropped. So if there are dedicated people working on KVM but no-one actually working on lguest, eventually something will change that results in lguest not working anymore. Eventually people will drop the broken code from their tree until someone fixes it. If no-one fixes it, then it'll never be picked up again. There's no "oh, lguest is actually faster than KVM, we should all work on that".. it's individuals making their own decisions on what to work on (be it that they find it interesting, or they find that bit of code more pretty, or they are paid by someone to work on it) and those individuals are responsible for what happens to that code.

      As long as N solutions are maintained there will be N solutions in the kernel. A solution won't be dropped because it performs worse.. or any other "technical" reason.

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  3. Re:Why? by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, like all those file systems the kernel supports. What's with that? You only need one. Man. Choice is good and all, but it sounds like overkill.

    Don't get me started on buses.. PCI, USB, SCSI, IDE, how many do you need?!

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    How we know is more important than what we know.
  4. Re:As a testament to my lack of knowledge... by QuantumG · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The hardware support for virtualization is in the kernel.

    Just like the hardware support for webcams is in the kernel.

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