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VMware Promises Multiple OSs On One Cellphone
superglaze writes to tell us that VMware has announced a large effort behind their Mobile Virtualization Platform, promising the possibility of multiple operating systems on mobile devices. "The company described MVP as a 'thin layer of software' that will be embedded in handsets and 'be optimized to run efficiently on low-power-consuming and memory-constrained mobile phones.' Asked whether MVP would offer something different from the abstraction already provided by mobile Java, VMware's European product director Fredrik Sjostedt told ZDNet UK that MVP would require less recoding. 'If you want to have an application run on a Java-specific appliance, you need to code it for Java,' Sjostedt said. 'What we're introducing with MVP is an [embedded] abstraction layer below that, between the physical hardware and the software layer.'"
The idea behind a VM isn't simply to run multiple OSes. That's just one benefit. Imagine behind able to transfer the entire state of your machine between different physical hardware. VMware can already do this with x86 machines with VMotion. How they're looking for possible wider applications. How about being able to transfer everything on your old phone to a new phone? Or how about backing up everything on the phone somewhere? Or if you work in IT for a large company, wouldn't it be nice for your users if the loaner Blackberry can be customized and always stay the same for the user no matter which physical device is assigned? Don't forget how limited the Internet's applications were when it was first started. Innovation can happen when we apply old ideas to new areas.
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Why they would want they do that? Increasingly, the handset suppliers are seeing the device software as being part of their value-add, brand differentiation and protection.
They don't want M$, Google Android or FOSS. Think iPhone.
Sounds like needless complexity on devices already challenged by small form factor, (memeory, battery lifre, CPU power...)
The only thing that could temp me would be security - open email (and attachments) in a VM wihout risking crashing - or infecting - my phone, which I also might be using for GPS navigation - hmmmm..
You are using "virtualize" in the marketing sense. There is no good reason to virtualize the entire OS of a desktop machine just so that you can copy your documents and preferences to a cellphone and back. That's not using a sledgehammer instead of a flyswatter. It's building a fleet of space-tugs, sending them to the asteroid belt to bring back asteroids, and then dropping those asteroids from orbit onto the flies.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman