On Sat, 30 Dec 2006 17:04:52 -0800 "Roopnarine, Peter" <proopnarine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I think that the question might actually be in reference to the new kernel > addition (Kernel Virtual Manager? I think). Apparently virtualization > capabilities will be built into the kernel. That's about all that I know, but > it sounds exciting. Yep. KVM gets rid of the "hypervisor" that Xen has, just making the hypervisor-like functions part of the Dom0 kernel (though no doubt KVM will have it's own jargon, so it won't call it Dom0). However, KVM (in current incarnation, anyway) doesn't support Xen's "paravirtualization" concept - KVM will only work on newer computers with hardware virtualization support (which is probably an OK restriction since by the time the kernels with KVM support have stabalized, all new computers will have the new instructions anyway). The big advantage I see to KVM is that nothing has to be "special" about the Dom0 kernel - all the regular old device drivers work fine, all the posts from people having problems with video drivers in the Xen kernel disappear, power management works like always, so your laptop with the Windows guest doesn't drain the battery in 10 minutes, etc. The biggest disadvantage will be easy for anyone with an older computer to spot :-). The second biggest disadvantage is the totally stupid acronym they have adopted for it, making it virtually impossible to find any information in a google search since all you get are hits on hardware switches.
