Triplesourced

Linux specialist Red Hat has announced that is developing an embedded hypervisor product that it claims will compliment rather than compete with its existing virtualisation strategy.

Launched at the first day of the company's annual user conference in Boston, the Embedded Linux Hypervisor is currently in beta with no commitment to when the product will eventually ship or how it will be distributed to customers.

"This is the first Linux based fully open source hypevisor. We see this announcement as one way to extend virtualisation into the entire enterprise," said Paul Cormier, president of products and technology at Red Hat.

The Embedded Linux Hypervisor is based on the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) project which has been integrated into the Linux kernel since 2006. Red Hat claims KVM supports live migration of virtual machines from system to system in real time and also has high availability features.

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Newly appointed Red Hat chief executive Jim Whitehurst claims that his employer's future lies in becoming an open source advisor to end-user companies to allow them to share internally developed software with the rest of industry.

Speaking on the first day of the Linux specialist's annual user conference in Boston, Whitehurst said that the company had done very well so far with a business model of making community developed software enterprise-ready but there is still a whole lot more that could be achieved.

"One thing is clear, we have built a great business around open source but a specific sliver of open source," he said. "But that is the tip of the iceberg, the vast majority of software is written in the enterprise and not for resale."



Whitehurst claimed that Red Hat's future lies in helping and encouraging companies to share internally developed software with other businesses – and therefore enriching the number of open source applications and platforms available.

"We need to get customers as not just as customers of open source but truly engaged with the development model. Red Hat needs to be an open source advisor," he said.

Rival Novell also made its presence known at the conference with a subtle banner hung right outside entrance to the conference.

Although it was good to see that Apple might finally be staging a significant assault on the enterprise with the 3G iPhone, the one thing that struck me immediately from Steve Jobs's latest product launch is how thin he is looking.

There is speculation on the web (isn't there always) that Jobs weight loss could be anything from the return of the pancreatic cancer he was diagnosed with in 2004, to the results of a strict vegan diet. Some rather black humour, (if illness is the cause) has also suggested that Jobs has simply adopted the thinner strategy that he seems to apply to all of Apple's products.

Jobs as he was at the World Wide Developers conference in 2007



Jobs on stage at this year's event.



Whatever the reality, and we very much hope this is diet-related, the hard truth is that given the way Apple is managed, Mr Jobs' health is a matter of public interest. If he was to leave the company for any reason it would have a massive impact on Apple and its shareholders. Media reports following the notification Jobs gave the Apple board around his cancer diagnosis appear to indicate that he was not as forthcoming as some would have hoped – and even chose to explore alternative treatments for a significant time before finally relenting and listening to the advice of conventional clinicians.