Mixed Signals
Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise
Thursday 22 October 2009, 10:03 PM
VMware to launch own Linux distro?
His first tweet:
"VMware is creating a new Linux distro, according to the recruiting spam they are sending on Linked In."
and a little later:
"Leaky VMware-istas confirm that VMware is creating a Linux distro. Investigative Journalist De Icaza signing off."
Nice work, chap. In subsequent discussions with other hacks, we agreed that it had a lot of sense behind it, although the thought of getting Linux support from VMware did rather unsettle some correspondents. The prevailing opinion, though, was "If they don't do that, where do they go?" - which has a certain logic to it.
More on this as it happens...
PreviousComments on this post
If there is truth in this Rupert, wouldn't it have made more sense to keep that announcement for a VMworld event? --- and we only just had one back in Sept in Moscone right?
AdrianB
It's insanely difficult to sync announcements with events. Intel are perhaps the strangest in this regard - it frequently says big things two weeks before or two weeks after IDF, where they've got hundreds of journalists just gagging for stories.
So you can't assume that projects are timed to coincide with conferences. Nice if they do, but plenty of reasons why you wouldn't.
Vmware already does a Linux distro: it's called ESX. So the recruitment might be for that - but if it's a full distro it makes sense *for VMware* and virtually no sense for customers. Buy support from a company that just sliced features and increased prices? Mmmmmm.
M
ESX is not Linux. when will people get that, just because the service console is Redhat based does not a linux distro make. The VMkernel is fully propriatory designed and written from the ground up.
ESX isnt as really a linux Distro, as ESXi doesnt have a linux OS involved at all. The Service console in ESX is a modified version of RHEL that sits on top of the kernel as its own VM as such. In vSphere 4 you can even access its own .vmdk file.
However, I was on a vSphere Training course last week and heard a rumour that the SC was going to go and that ESX will become more like ESXi. I was also told there will still be the opportunity to go into a Command Line. Maybe this is what VMware are working on? A Real stripped down version of Linux with some easy to use VMware specific commands?
With vSphere 4 they have encorporated a few things to stop us having to use the Service Console CLI on ESX as much, such as Storage vMotion in the GUI and we can now get alarms on hardware faults all within vSphere (saving us from isntalling a 3rd party agent)
I am purely speculating here, but I am sure that time will tell with this one.
Steve
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