http://www.osnews.com/story/18896/Red_Hat_Releases_RHEL_5_1_with_Greatly_Improved_Virtualization Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:17:00 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com http://osnews.com/thread?283495 http://osnews.com/thread?283495 Linux is an excellent server OS and this just makes it better. The problem is that it still isn't something fresh and revolutionary for UNIX switchers - it's still just a better UNIX. Linux needs some revolutionary, original and useful features to set it apart from the competition. Look at Mac OS X Server. It is UNIX based but adds some great apple features and makes it super easy to give it an edge in it's intended market (small-medium businesses). So essentially, great for linux but it still need some super features so it can stand out and be the best.Edited 2007-11-08 01:21 Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:16:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (sultanqasim) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?283513 http://osnews.com/thread?283513 Last time I checked windows and graphical linux were very difficult to use with virt-manager. The mouse on the screen and the mouse in the VM don't match up, so hitting buttons was very difficult. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=242676 Thu, 08 Nov 2007 03:38:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (jrincayc) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?283520 http://osnews.com/thread?283520 I am aware of this problem. It isn't really a bug, it's a missing feature. First of all, both the host and the guest OS are doing mouse tracking things (sensitivity and speed dampening etc.) and second, there is not code to make the mouse disappear in the host when the guest is in use. It will take a bit of lower level coding to fix these problems but my point is that it isn't a mistake on the dev's part.

*I think there is some code out to do these things but they haven't been incorporated as of 5.0 (haven't tried 5.1) Thu, 08 Nov 2007 04:15:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (sultanqasim) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?283525 http://osnews.com/thread?283525 How much is Jobs charging for a keynote appearance these days? "Just click here, and BOOM!, virtual machine. Now let's make three more: Boom, Boom, Boom. And we're done." Thu, 08 Nov 2007 04:32:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (butters) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?283544 http://osnews.com/thread?283544 Linux Automation. Any application, anywhere, anytime :
http://www.press.redhat.com/2007/11/07/linux-automation-any-applica...

RHEL 5.1 :
http://www.redhat.com/about/news/prarchive/2007/virtualization.html

Linux Available On Demand on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud :
http://www.redhat.com/about/news/prarchive/2007/amazon.html

Appliance Platform
http://www.redhat.com/about/news/prarchive/2007/appliance_platform....


All made in november 7.Edited 2007-11-08 07:12 Thu, 08 Nov 2007 07:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (superman) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?283559 http://osnews.com/thread?283559 Shouldn't guest X just work in touchscreen/tablet mode? Host would just say "mouse is at X,Y" instead of "mouse moved X mixels up". Thu, 08 Nov 2007 09:04:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (zdzichu) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?283560 http://osnews.com/thread?283560 This has been fixed. Now upon clicking in the guest operating system, the pointer of the host will disappear, only activating the guest pointer, with a pop up telling you to use Ctrl + Alt to release the host pointer. Thu, 08 Nov 2007 09:15:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (laclasse) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?283573 http://osnews.com/thread?283573 I doubt whether I'll use the virtualisation stuff in Red Hat until KVM matures. The tools are still behind VMware's, Xen has a habit of screwing up networking so you can't run VMware and Xen side-by-side (arghhhh, Xen's custom kernels!), I don't have hardware that supports running of Windows yet and I have some pre-built VMware machines that I still have to use.

All in all, I'm simply non-plused by built-in virtualisation in both the major distributions because I'm waiting for something that does it properly. Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:58:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (segedunum) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?283586 http://osnews.com/thread?283586 Define properly.

It seems to work pretty well for lots of people already and with more virtualization-aware processors things can only get better. Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (porcel) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?283587 http://osnews.com/thread?283587 Well, Linux is very mature and performs great. Last time the same thing could not be said of OSX as a server platform. The database performance was horrendous.

I don't find there is anything really missing in the current Linux server offerings. Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:49:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (porcel) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?283596 http://osnews.com/thread?283596 Define properly.

It can work without using special hardware for Windows, better management tools, a Xen kernel can run without borking the networking for everyone and I want to run a Linux distro without having a special kernel. That matters most of all. Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (segedunum) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?283612 http://osnews.com/thread?283612 You do understand that in the server/workstation world, you don't need revolutions, far from it. You need stability, low purchase and maintenance costs rock-solid security. Virtualization is also beginning to be a base-line requirement.

Being a better Unix or Windows 2K3 is a -big- deal.
Having rock solid virtualization working out of the box, (with or w/o good looking UI) is a -big- deal.

You might argue that Linux desktop is missing a killer feature... but RedHat's lunch is enterprise servers and desktops - a far cry from your desktop.

- Gilboa Thu, 08 Nov 2007 17:14:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (gilboa) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?283613 http://osnews.com/thread?283613 I may be wrong here, but AFAICS, RHEL/Xen was designed to do one thing, and do it well:
Run multiple sand boxed copies of RHEL under a single RHEL host.

Running Windows 2K3 using Xen may work (using VT/SVN-enabled cores) but it's not RedHat's target audience.

- Gilboa Thu, 08 Nov 2007 17:18:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (gilboa) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?283627 http://osnews.com/thread?283627 Not quite... When Novell touted how badass SLES's virtualization features were, it was a very striped down Xen 3.0.x that only ran virtualized SLES. At that time, Redhat said simply that Xen wasn't ready for primetime and needed more work. They were right.

Redhat's virtualization is certainly a way for them to help you upgrade to RHEL5, but that isn't all it is for. Most Redhat customers are also Microsoft customers so it wouldn't make sense for windows to work very well under RHEL's Xen. Virtualization makes it much easier to migrate from one platform to another.

The US govt uses RHEL in places that isolation is a serious concern (google Information Assurance) and SELinux + Xen make a great solution.


That being said, you certainly have a good point. RHEL is their bread & butter after all. Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (SEJeff) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?283668 http://osnews.com/thread?283668 I totally agree; I don't need or even want a revolution going on in my server rack. That's why I've shied away from Linux distros that have to appeal to the bleeding-edge desktop crowd. Thu, 08 Nov 2007 19:31:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Runesabre) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?283695 http://osnews.com/thread?283695 I do think Linux is really solid. I was just saying to a co-worker that Linux needs that must have app or feature to make it really appeal to guys spending the money. It needs something like how email was/is for/to the internet. Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:55:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Damind) Comments