Microsoft has released of approximately 20,000 lines of code which it is putting under the GNU General Public License v2 licensing agreement as part of their commitment to streamlining the integration of Windows and Linux. Microsoft made the announcement on July 20, the opening day of the O’Reilly OSCON open-source conference. The desire for Windows and Linux interoperability was one of the main reasons given for Microsoft’s 2006 collaboration agreement with Novell, which also included a patent provisions that drew fire for appearing to support Microsoft’s claims that Linux violates its patents.

Microsoft’s Linux drivers were developed largely by members of Microsoft’s Open Source Technology Center (OSTC) team, which has developed expertise in Linux, Unix and open-source technologies. The contribution of code will make it possible to run a variety of Linux distributions as guests on Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualization technology for Windows Server 2008. Virtualization lets multiple operating systems run on the same server, reducing hardware and management costs. Microsoft says customers are pushing for that type of flexibility, and for that reason it says the move is right for its business.

Microsoft’s open source driver technology will first appear in December as part of the 2.6.32 release of the kernel. The code consists of four drivers that are part of a Microsoft technology called Linux Device Driver for Virtualization. The drivers will enable any distribution of Linux to run on Windows Server 2008 and its Hyper-V hypervisor technology. One of the drivers is a virtual hypervisor bus that talks directly to the Windows Hyper-V platform that will sit underneath Linux. The other three are positioned on top of that and address performance, I/O, and storage. There are driver for virtual networks, virtual SCSI and virtual block devices, a storage mechanism similar to SCSI.

This new code addition will be maintained over time by Microsoft, working with the kernel community, and will enable everyone the use of any Linux on top of Hyper-V.

Microsoft’s move validates the GPL and the Linux kernel development process and should resolve any remaining questions about that process as a legitimate way to make software or do business, said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. If anyone has questions about the company’s motivations, he said, it’s important to note that the move is good for its business.

Oracle has been in the virtualization game for a while with Oracle VM.  But, with this new acquisition of Sun Microsystems what can we expect?

Sun bought MySQL,an open source database management system used by millions.  The future of MySQL was in question after one of the founding members left Sun after the acquisition.  But what is the future now?

Oracle being a heavyweight in the database arena now acquires one of the most lucrative open source database management systems on the planet.  So what will happen to MySQL?  Since this database management system is used in some of the most visited sites like Google and Yahoo, and directly competes with DBMS’s like Oracle, DB2, and SQL Server, so what is the future for MySQL?

Personally I would hope that they would keep it open source so it would not change the way I do business.  Now let’s not forget about PostgreSQL, which is the open source equivalent of Oracle.  Also, EnterpriseDB which boasts Oracle compatibility almost unchanged using PostgreSQL.

Also don’t  forget that Oracle wants to target their flagship database to Linux, making Linux the preferable option to run Oracle on.  This will be interesting, I am wondering how all of this will pan out!

Will Oracle make a MySQL VM?  Time will tell, so stay tuned.

The new Intel chip just released March 30th, code-named “Nehalem” and formally known as the Intel Xeon X5500 is as Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Digital Enterprise Group says, “The most important processor since the Pentium Pro!”

This new processor from Intel is fast and furious and adds new features to further bridge the gap between virtual machines and physical hardware.  This 731-million transistor chip will be exciting for IT managers that rely heavily on virtualization technologies to meet their IT goals, but is it ready for prime time?  Time will tell, but it all looks good!.

A quick overview of some of the nifty performance upgrades that you can expect.  The Integrated Memory Controller is now located on the core die instead of on a chipset connected by a front-side bus.  This will provide  a huge significant performance gain.  An extra memory channel has also been added as well.  Other performance improvements allow for denser virtual machine deployments will be included with this awesome new chip.

VMware ESX Server 4.0 (now in beta) will ship later on this year, and VMware has been a close partner regarding some of the new changes to this super chip.  IT managers should take care in choosing this platform, and truly understand the trade-offs with VMware’s VMotions backwards compatibility.  ESX 4.0 currently will support the lowest processor generation as a whole in a VMotion cluster.

Turbo-mode allows a processor to offload an over-worked processor task to another one, this increases the ability for the system to handle the load.  It also includes “Simultaneous Mutli-Threading”,  formerly hyper-threading, a technology that was resurrected from the original Pentium 4.

Now what of the Itanium?  It it at a dead-end, and is it still worth it? More on this subject later.   Stay tuned!

Intelleginix