The Unix Haters' Handbook

[Alexander Schreiber]

On Tue, Apr 08, 2008 at 03:49:19PM +0100, Liam Proven wrote:
> On 08/04/2008, Alexander Schreiber <als at thangorodrim.de> wrote:
> > On Tue, Apr 08, 2008 at 09:22:02AM +0200, Jochen Kunz wrote:
> >  > On Tue, 8 Apr 2008 03:56:14 +0100
> >  > "Liam Proven" <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
> >  >
> >  > > I know SQR(fsck all) about Lisp Machines, but in these days of
> >  > > high-powered PCs, would it be viable to create some form of
> >  > > implementation of the LispM OS on x86? Even if it required some kind
> >  > > of emulation layer underneath for content-addressable memory or
> >  > > whatever?
> >  > http://labs.aezenix.com/lispm/index.php?title=VLM_On_Linux
> >  >
> >  > VLM On Linux
> >  >
> >  > This file gives some additional hints on running the Symbolics Virtual
> >  > Lisp Machine (VLM) port to Linux/x86_64 by Brad Parker.
> >  > [...]
> >
> >
> > There is also a Lisp on bare-metal-x86, project Movitz:
> >  http://common-lisp.net/project/movitz/
> >
> >  It would probably be a good idea to port it against the Xen PVM
> >  interface - this would solve the pesky issue of hardware drivers quite
> >  elegantly ;-)
> 
> Fascinating. Thanks for that.
> 
> I was going to say that running it under Xen or something would rather
> miss the point, inasmuch as that brings all the baggage of having Unix
> underneath - but then, coincidentally, today I read this:
> 
> <http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Infrastructure/Novell-Developing-Standalone-Xen-Based-Hypervisor-Product/>
> 
> The URL is quite informative in itself, really, but the article opens thus:
> 
> _Novell Developing Stand-Alone Xen-Based Hypervisor Product_
> 
> *Novell's hypervisor product will be available later in 2008 and is
> based on the Xen hypervisor found in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.*
> 
> Novell is quietly working on a stand-alone hypervisor product that
> will be based on the Xen hypervisor found in SUSE Linux Enterprise
> Server 10.

Ah yes, Novell can play the "Lies, damn lies and marketing" game as well
as anybody else. What the product _will_ be (if you read the
announcement carefully), is a stand-alone product consisting of:
 - the Xen hypervisor
 - a stripped down Linux distribution to run as Domain 0 (the privileged
   Xen domain for management and hardware drivers)

In other words, something any compentent Linux sysadmin with some
knowledge of Xen can crank out on a boring friday, using
$DISTRO_OF_CHOICE as base.

So it will still contain Unix underneath, but you won't be able to use
that Unix for anything.

Regards,
       Alex.

-- 
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
 looks like work."                                      -- Thomas A. Edison