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is one of the coolest features of Windows server. It is a true lightweight hypervisor based virtualization for the most heavyweight server needs. Well ok may not the most heavyweight servers in the first release but it's ability to provide true SMP support to virtual machines, a new virtual bus based device IO model seems very cool and I think would provide better performance than competing vmware and xen.

Why was this post modded down to -1??

Seriously some people need to get over themselves on this forum.

It wasn't modded. Highly trusted users start at +2, regular users start at +1, untrusted users start at 0, and those who are most often modded down start at -1. When a user leaves a good comment, mod them UP and help them repair their trust.

is one of the coolest features of Windows server. It is a true lightweight hypervisor based virtualization for the most heavyweight server needs.

One of the biggest problems that you have with virtualisation is the hardware and the OS you run your hypervisor on as the single point of failure, and you find that out when you do it. I fail to see why I should get excited about running a hypervisor and virtual machines on top of Windows, and all its inherent patches, built-in software and instability, when I can run ESX (or even a stripped Linux distro and VMware Server) and have far, far fewer problems.

Well ok may not the most heavyweight servers in the first release but it's ability to provide true SMP support to virtual machines, a new virtual bus based device IO model seems very cool and I think would provide better performance than competing vmware and xen.

I very much doubt it. Running a hypervisor and a bunch of virtual machines on top of Windows is just not a good idea. The whole idea is that the OS or platform that you run your hypervisor on has practically nothing running on it, not just for performance but for stability reasons. Microsoft just can't offer that. I can also get SMP support in ESX and in VMware Server now. I'm also not going to get excited about running Linux guests on a Windows server as a result.

I don't really consider Viridian even to be much of a competitor to VMware Server, especially considering that it's infinitely far less proven. I haven't looked at the details, but I'd be very surprised if there weren't some licensing shenanigans going on in there as well.

In the Linux world, Xen looks to be on the road to nowhere because it's getting too far up its own backside as to the technical solutions it comes up with. KVM is far, far more straightforward, and I bet companies like Red Hat are just desperate to see the back of Xen and the support they have to provide for it. This will take some time to sort out before people really start using it in great numbers.