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Linus Thinks Virtualization Is 'Evil'

Posted by Soulskill on from the know-who-else-used-virtualization? dept.

Front page first-timer crdotson writes "Linus said in an interview that he thinks virtualization is 'evil' because he prefers to deal with the real hardware. Hardware virtualization allows for better barriers between systems by running multiple OSes on the same hardware, but OS-level virtualization allows similar barriers without a hypervisor between the kernel and the hardware. Should we expect more focus on OS-level virtualization such as Linux-VServer, OpenVZ, and LXC?"

4 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. Screws are evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because I'm used to working with a hammer.

    Linus is not a god, just a guy, with his own prejudices.

    1. Re:Screws are evil by timeOday · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Read the article. Linus has accepted both KVM and Xen into the kernel, it talks about why he and some other guru think KVM was managed better and is a better implementation.

      Let's not confuse two completely different things: if Richard Stallman said something was "evil," it would mean he was morally opposed to it and wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. But Linus calling hypervisor virtualization "evil" just means he'd rather work on hardware, but hey, you want virtualization, go ahead and take your pick of the ones Linux provides.

  2. wrong, OS level Implementation is the problem by g00mbasv · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The title is a bit on the FUD style. PROPER virtualization is not criticized by Linus, but improper implementation, namely cheap OS-level virtualization wich could lead to lazy shortcuts to patches and features implementation.

    1. Re:wrong, OS level Implementation is the problem by LWATCDR · · Score: 5, Informative

      Man this and the reactions to it are dumb.
      "Ask the world's most famous kernel developer what he thinks of the virtualization wars going on the Linux community between KVM and Xen and you'll hear a condemnation (of a sort) of them both. "I'm not a virtualization kind of guy. I think virtualization is evil," Linus Torvalds told the crowd at LinuxCon on Wednesday during his keynote interview session with Greg Kroah-Hartman."
      Linus doesn't like using and probably really doesn't like dealing with this war.
      If you read more. ""I built a kernel because I wanted to get my hands grubby with things like I/O ports.""
      Really this headline is taken so out of context that it isn't funny. But it got people to flame on Slash and probably a lot of hits.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.