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Ubuntu Picks Upstart, KVM
derrida writes "Because the traditional System V init daemon (SysVinit) does not deal well with modern hardware, including hotplug devices, USB hard and flash drives, and network-mounted filesystems, Ubuntu replaced it with the upstart init daemon. Several other replacements for SysVinit are also available. One of the most prominent, initng, is available for Debian and runs on Ubuntu. Solaris uses SMF (Service Management Facility) and Mac OS uses launchd. Over time, Ubuntu will likely come to incorporate features of each of these systems into Upstart. Furthermore, heading in a different direction from its main rivals, Ubuntu Linux will use KVM as its primary virtualization software. Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server both use the Xen virtualization software, a 'hypervisor' layer that lets multiple operating systems run on the same computer. In contrast, the KVM software runs on top of a version of Linux, the 'host' operating system that provides a foundation for other 'guest' operating systems to run in a virtual mode." Slashdot shares a corporate overlord with Linux.com.
Except Upstart has been in Ubuntu since IIRC 6.10, nothing has even changed about the design.
/* FUCK - The F-word is here so that you can grep for it */
Upstart still accepts the SysV init scripts.
Put identity in the browser.
Wow. Dude, KVM is the only one I've gotten to work with no fuss. For me it was downloading kvm-57.tar.gz, ./configure; make; sudo make install; qemu-imw create ... image.img; qemu-system-x86_64 -hda ... ; qemu-system-x86_64 image.img. Installing Debian is best (vs, say, Fedora) because it's faster with a smaller amount of memory. Now go ahead and download KVM and enjoy!
VMWare Server is probably the safest choice. It's stable, works, and is fairly convenient.
Parallels just came out with convenient installation for Ubuntu, I haven't checked it out yet. But it is supposedly very user-friendly on other platforms, so it might be worth a shot if VMWare isn't working out.
It requires them to run with performance, yes. It falls back to pure emulation when they aren't available, because it *is* still qemu as well.
Meanwhile, my crystal ball shows me that VT-capable hardware is not going away, so the "tiny fraction" will become the majority. It seems important to consider them when thinking of future directions.
__CmdrTHAC0__
In Soviet Russia, Spanish Inquisition doesn't expect YOU!!
A GUI for virtualization is already in Hardy, everyone.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=983&num=1