Editors • About the Site • Comes vs. Microsoft • Using This Web Site • Site Archives • Credibility Index • OOXML • OpenDocument • Patents • Novell • News Digest • Site News • RSS

09.11.08

Links 11/09/2008: CERN Does GNU/Linux, KVM Will Be Free

Posted in News Roundup at 5:39 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Laptops

  • $98 Linux laptop makes Netbooks look pricey
  • Netbooks, Chrome and the future of computing
  • A Tiny Laptop With a Difference: No Hard Drive
  • Acer Perspire One

    Enough about me, let’s get back to the sweaty business in hand. Of course, I decided that the installed Linpus Lite linux (based on the venerable Fedora), which works perfectly adequately, had to be ripped out and replaced with Ubuntu. It has become an obsession of mine, to install Ubuntu linux on everything. The fridge runs Ubuntu now, as does the PC and the mobile phone, and I’m considering an implant for the dog.

  • Finding Linux Systems Where They Never Were Found Before

    I regularly receive a catalog from Tiger Direct in the mail Up until very recently every system, desktop and laptop, in their catalog ran Windows and sported a Windows logo in the ad. While the majority still do a half a dozen laptops, all low-end netbooks, are sold with Linux preinstalled and the Tux logo is prominently featured in some of the ads. Linux netbooks by Sylvania, Asus, HP, and Acer are all prominently advertised alongside Windows systems. Searching for Linux on their website reveals additional models available preloaded with Linux.

GNU/Linux

Desktop Environments

F/OSS

Browsers

Leftovers

Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day

Michael Robertson, Chairman of Linspire, Inc. 07 (2004)

Ogg Theora

Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.

Share this post: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Reddit
  • co.mments
  • DZone
  • email
  • Google Bookmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • NewsVine
  • Print
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis
  • Facebook

If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

Pages that cross-reference this one

11 Comments

  1. AlexH said,

    September 11, 2008 at 1:23 pm

    Gravatar

    KVM “will be” free? “Is free” and “will continue to be free”, surely….

  2. Roy Schestowitz said,

    September 11, 2008 at 1:37 pm

    Gravatar

    Yes, see the headline: “Red Hat: The hypervisor will be free”

  3. AlexH said,

    September 11, 2008 at 1:54 pm

    Gravatar

    Which isn’t a reference to KVM alone; I’m wondering why you changed that?

  4. Roy Schestowitz said,

    September 11, 2008 at 1:59 pm

    Gravatar

    No reason. I knew it was already free and I hope companies will embrace KVM and not those binary things (Xen is dead in my eyes and Sun promote Solaris with xVM).

  5. AlexH said,

    September 11, 2008 at 2:01 pm

    Gravatar

    Xen’s not dead for those who need performance; it will continue to be an option for a while yet.

  6. Roy Schestowitz said,

    September 11, 2008 at 2:26 pm

    Gravatar

    Xen is a mess not only because of its new owner and the Microsoft connection. It’s a technical mess worthy of the bin bucket from what I can gather.

    The truth about KVM and Xen

    When the distros first shipped Xen, it was done mostly out of desperation. Virtualization was, and still is, the “hot” thing. Linux did not provide any native hypervisor capability. Most Linux developers didn’t even really know that much about virtualization. Xen was a pretty easy to use purpose-built kernel that had a pretty good community. So we made the hasty decision to ship Xen instead of investing in making Linux a proper hypervisor.

    This decision has come back to haunt us now in the form of massive confusion. When people talk about Xen not being merged into Linux, I don’t think they realize that Xen will never be merged into Linux. Xen will always be a separate, purpose-built kernel. There are patches to Linux that enable it to run well as a guest under Xen. These patches are likely to be merged in the future, but Xen will never been a part of the Linux kernel.

    [...]

    Looking at the rest of the industry, I’m surprised that other kernels haven’t gone in the direction of Linux in terms of adding hypervisor support directly to the kernel.

    Why is Windows not good enough to act a hypervisor such that Microsoft had to write a new kernel from scratch (Hyper-V)?

    Why is Solaris not good enough to act as a hypervisor requiring Sun to ship Xen in xVM? Solaris is good enough to run enterprise workloads but not good enough to run a Windows VM? Really? Maybe :-)

    Forget about all of the “true hypervisor” FUD you may read. The real question to ask yourself is what is so wrong with these other kernels that they aren’t capable of running virtual machines well and instead have to rely on a relatively young and untested microkernel to do their heavy lifting?

    KVM and Xen cofounders engage in war of words

    Maybe, but Pratt was responding to his KVM?s competitors? claims that Xen’s days are numbered because of KVM?s tight integration with the Linux kernel.

    Increasing Virtualization Insanity

    For sysadmin types this means: do what you have to do with Xen for now. But keep the investments small. For developers this means: don’t let yourself be tied to a platform. Use an abstraction layer such as libvirt to bridge over the differences. For architects this means: don’t looking to Xen for answers, base your new designs on KVM.

    Xen vs. KVM: round 1 bell to ring soon

    Industry executives are downplaying concerns about a growing schism between rival open source virtualization factions but a market battle between Xen and KVM appears increasingly likely, and imminent.

    Linux: KVM Adds Support For SMP Guests

    A recently merged KVM patchset included support for guest SMP, various performance improvements, and suspend/resume fixes. KVM stands for Kernel-based Virtual Machine,

    Linux: Improved KVM Performance, Vista Support

    Avi Kivity announced significant performance improvements and support for running 32-bit Windows Vista as a guest within the latest release of KVM.

    Linux KVM Virtualization Performance

    The benefits of KVM are high performance, stable, no modifications of the guest operating system are necessary, and a great deal of other capabilities (e.g. using the Linux scheduler). Once the Linux 2.6.20 kernel is officially out the door we will proceed with a greater number of KVM benchmarks in various environments including looking at the hardware virtualization performance between AMD and Intel.

  7. AlexH said,

    September 11, 2008 at 3:02 pm

    Gravatar

    None of that is particularly true as far as I can tell.

    KVM is in the mainline kernel because it’s a simple solution given the hardware support. Xen exists to provide support where hardware isn’t available. They’re different solutions for different jobs, and KVM is still quite immature.

  8. Roy Schestowitz said,

    September 11, 2008 at 3:22 pm

    Gravatar

    That point I agree with you on, based on what I’ve been reading. VMware seems like the leader, but it has the bundling dilemma.

  9. AlexH said,

    September 11, 2008 at 3:28 pm

    Gravatar

    VMware is the leader, that’s true, but it’s not about the actual hypervisor – what they lead in is the tools and drivers for managing large number of machines.

    In terms of free software competitors, it’s actually something like oVirt which is the competitor: and in that sense, it doesn’t matter if it’s KVM, Xen, or some other system – with a single virtualisation API you don’t really “care” any more because they all look the same. You just pick the appropriate one for your hardware and/or software and/or other needs.

  10. Roy Schestowitz said,

    September 11, 2008 at 3:31 pm

    Gravatar

    I only have experience with desktop hypervisors.

    I’m starting to see others who frown upon Microsoft+Novell:

    http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10039172-62.html

    “As Suse Linux fades further from any relevance outside of Microsoft, and Red Hat and Sun make huge strides in virtualization, Novell plans to offer support for Suse running on Windows. Is there meaning here or is Novell just becoming more of a Microsoft puppet?”

  11. AlexH said,

    September 11, 2008 at 3:45 pm

    Gravatar

    Interesting that he calls him column “negative approach” :D

    Look, it’s quite easy to pooh-pooh them trying to improve the performance of their OS on Windows’ virtualisation. At the end of the day, if there aren’t people who want the product, they won’t make much out of it, and if there are people who want it I don’t see what the harm is. If people want to run Windows to virtualise servers, if the free software performance sucks they’re just going to run more Windows.

What Else is New

  1. The Reality Distortion Field of Patent Lawyers Helps Impede Abolition of Software Patents

    How widespread coverage and talking points from the tiny minority which is patent lawyers have contributed to biased and at times utterly distorted reporting on the subject of software patents around the world

  2. Eugene Kaspersky Says Patents Harm Innovation

    Some more criticism of the patent system and software patents in particular, courtesy of Eugene Kaspersky

  3. UEFI Restricted Boot Good for Microsoft Agenda, Not for Security

    News and analysis of UEFI 'secure boot' (lockdown), including the new role played by the Microsoft-funded SUSE

  4. Anniversaries

    Sites that deal with patents and with FUD as well as their respective ages

  5. EFF, Newegg, and the Canadian Patent System All Take a Stance Against Software Patents

    Hostility towards the practice of patenting software is seen in a nonprofit organisation, a corporation, and a government branch responsible for patenting

  6. Microsoft's Fake 'Open Source' Front is "Pushing Software Patents" (Updated)

    Microsoft's front group which pretends to support Free/Open Source software (FOSS) is using a guest post to entertain the idea of software patents inside Free/Open Source software

  7. Links 17/5/2013: 0.9 Billion Android Activations, New Devices, Android Studio

    Links for the day

  8. Links 16/5/2013: Firefox 21 Out, Android 4.3 Foreseen

    Links for the day

  9. More Android FUD From Former Microsoft Staff in CBS

    New examples of anti-Android sentiments being spread by the Apple- and Microsoft-funded media conglomerate, CBS, which pays current and former Microsoft staff to act as "journalists"

  10. Where Fear of FOSS Comes From

    More Microsoft ties to some of the latest FUD about Free/Open Source software (FOSS)

  11. Microsoft Skype Messaging Surveillance Not the Main Issue, Audio Recording (Bugging) and Computer Hijacking Are

    Debates about the dangers of Skype focus on one of the least dangerous aspects of Skype

  12. Links 15/5/2013: Android 4.3, Antergos Debuts

    Links for the day

  13. Man From Microsoft Runs the Ubuntu Project Now

    How the leadership of Ubuntu has changed and how it may relate to some strategic decisions inside the project

  14. Has Microsoft Irreversibly Taken Over ZDNet (CBS) to Disseminate Its Lies?

    ZDNet promotes Microsoft in the editorial sections, not just in the ads, and it employs Microsoft people who habitually also censor commenters for expressing views that may upset the customers (advertisers like Microsoft)

  15. Microsoft is Attacking Boston Over Brand Ideology

    Another hypocritical attack of Microsoft against Google, this time in Boston

  16. Software Patents Reality Distortion Field

    How press coverage of software patents in the EU and New Zealand (NZ) varies depending on the source; allegations that the US press tries to dismiss end of software patents by twisting an outcome of a major trial

  17. Links 14/5/2013: Android Growth Explosion

    Links for the day

  18. Links 13/5/2013: New Linux/Open Source Documentary, Lots More About International Space Station

    Links for the day

  19. Prominent GNU/Linux/KDE Developer Jonathan Riddell Complains About UEFI Restricted Boot, Calling it "a giant Microsoft conspiracy to make installing Linux more faffy than it already is."

    UEFI abuses continue, but Microsoft PR, lies, and attempts to silence the media go a long way, ensuring evidence gets insufficient coverage

  20. Facebook and Microsoft Get Closer, Now Reaching Their Relationship's Peak as Facebook Declines

    Facebook starts leaning on Microsoft for help now that its users (products) no longer log in and give data (content) to consume advertisements (Facebook's real clients) as much as they used to

  21. Dr. Ravitch: Gates Foundation Underwrites Almost Every Organisation in its Quest to Control American Education

    More complaints about yet more rogue influence that is masqueraded as "public interest" or "for education" (whilst in fact having the opposite effect)

  22. Formerly Microsoft, But New FUD

    Microsoft FUD by proxy; or, how the old claims that FOSS is complex and dangerous are now coming from firms created by people from Microsoft Corp.

  23. Matt Asay is Wrong, Microsoft Does Sue (SLAPP Action), Doesn't Just Threaten

    Misleading article helps portray the aggressor as a negotiator, using patently false claims that are easily disprovable

  24. Todd Simpson From Mozilla Joined an Angry Patent Troll, IBM Tries to Warp Debate About Software Patents to Focus Just on Trolls

    Revisiting the stance of FOSS proponents on software patents and patent trolls; Mozilla, IBM, Red Hat, and Nokia (also before Microsoft takeover) discussed

  25. Unitary Patent Impediments Covertly Addressed by EU Member Governments

    The UK is modifying its law to accommodate takeover of national interests by foreign interests which may usher in software patents among other nasty elements of protectionism (primarily exported by multinational corporations from across the Atlantic ocean)

  26. Software Patents May Have Just Died in the United States, According to Some Pundits and Experts

    The collection of opinions from notable figures and sources that analysed the CAFC decision regarding a software patent in the US

  27. People Power Works in India, Microsoft Deal Partly Crushed After AICTE Comes Under Fire

    Weakening of a Microsoft pact after intervention by freedom-respecting software advocates in India and abroad

  28. IRC Proceedings: May 5th, 2013-May 11th, 2013

    IRC logs for May 5th, 2013 (and subsequent days until May 11th, 2013)

  29. IRC Proceedings: April 28th, 2013-May 4th, 2013

    IRC logs for April 28th, 2013 (and subsequent days until May 4th, 2013)

  30. IRC Proceedings: April 21st, 2013-April 27th, 2013

    IRC logs for April 21st, 2013 (and subsequent days until April 27th, 2013)

RSS 64x64RSS Feed: subscribe to the RSS feed for regular updates

Home iconSite Wiki: You can improve this site by helping the extension of the site's content

Chat iconIRC Channel: Come and chat with us in real time

Recent Posts