* VMware Community Source program intended to accelerate the development of virtualization software
The virtualization vendors stirred the pot at LinuxWorld in San Francisco last week.
VMware, in light of increasing competition for Microsoft and XenSource, last week announced at LinuxWorld that it is opening up its source code to independent software and hardware vendors. The move is intended to create an open virtualization platform and make VMware the center of it.
The company announced it is working with AMD, BEA Systems, BMC, Dell, Emulex, HP, iBM, Mellanox, Novell and Red Hat, among others. VMware will provide its partners access to its ESX Server source code through a program called VMware Community Source, which will allow them to collaboratively develop ESX Server.
The VMware Community Source program is intended to accelerate the development of virtualization software, expand its interoperability and supportability by creating standard interfaces and make virtualization technologies more widely available.
As part of the program VMware will contribute its Virtual Machine Hypervisor Interfaces, which enable partitioning of the server. The Community Source program will give members a royalty-free license to ESX Server and allow them to contribute modules they create.
The company also announced that it will support paravirtualized Linux and Solaris x86 operating systems in future releases of VMware Workstation, GSX and ESX Server. Paravirtualized operating systems are specifically optimized to run in virtual environments.
Separately, SWsoft announced that its virtualization product for Linux is now available. Virtuozzo 2.6.2 for Linux includes a physical-to-virtual migration program, expanded Control Center management tools and enhanced platform support. The company has added new cloning capability. Virtuozzo for Linux supports 32- and 64-bit versions of Linux. A Windows version is also available http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/062805-swsoft-windows.html.
Virtuozzo for Linux is priced at $999 per CPU and $999 per seat for the management tool with unlimited servers http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/061605-swsoft.html.
