Sun xVM Desktop Runs Windows, Solaris, Linux Concurrently
By: Chris Preimesberger
2008-09-11
Article Rating: / 9
Thanks to cool new data management software called xVM VirtualBox, introduced Sept. 10, running four operating systems (Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X) at the same time--on the same screen--appears to be easy. The "co-opetative" companies that make these operating systems and their corresponding apps have made peace from the old, partisan days of, well, about two years ago.
Sun xVM Desktop Runs Windows, Solaris, Linux Concurrently (
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MENLO PARK, Calif.—When
Sun Microsystems, showing off its new Java-based xVM virtual desktop
for a group of journalists and analysts Sept. 10, demonstrated an Apple laptop
that was running Linux, Solaris and Windows in separate instances on the same
screen, people immediately put their coffees down and started taking fervent
notes.
What they were seeing for the first time was a single Mac OS X laptop with
three other operating systems all on the same screen, in different windows,
running their individual applications—all at the same time.
There seemed to be little or no latency, too. Each OS worked smoothly. These
were all lightweight, virtualized instances from faraway servers whose
geographic location was irrelevant. The Solaris instance happened to originate
in Germany, but
it didn't make a shred of difference.
How is this all possible? Thanks to some cool new data management
software called xVM VirtualBox, introduced Sept. 10, it appeared to
be easy. The "co-opetition" companies that make these operating
systems and their corresponding applications have made peace—ostensibly, anyway—and
have decided to bury any digital hatchets left over from the old, partisan days
of, well, about two years ago. This new spirit all should have happened long
before 2006.
"We introduced Sun's xVM [the 'x' stands for the 'intersection of
virtualization and IT'] at OracleWorld last year [2007]," Sun xVM Vice President
Steve Wilson told the group. "Since that first v1.0, we have recorded more
than 6.5 million downloads. And v2.0, which we are also announcing today,
has much more functionality."
No kidding. The xVM VirtualBox desktop is simple enough "for my
grandmother to install and use," Wilson
said with a laugh, yet it is able to juggle all the applications noted earlier
in this story.
Imagine the benefits this Swiss-army-knife-type hypervisor will bring to
software developers, who will now be able to code and test their builds for
various OSes—all at the same time! Financial service and Web 2.0
companies, which are always trying to upgrade and rework their applications,
will find this interesting, too.
"We imagine that software development will be one of the movers on
this," Wilson said.
The open-source xVM package, most of which came to Sun in the February
2008 acquisition of Germany-based Innotech, consists of the Xen-based xVM Server, xVM VDI
(virtual desktop), xVM Ops
Center 2.0 (management console for all these tools) and surrounding services.
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