Right now, who ever runs the host nod writes all the rules. The host node is the actual operating system installed on the computer and constantly running in the background. This host is able to start, stop, create, modify and delete “virtual machines” at any time.
Currently there are 3 choices for your host operating system, they are as follows: Linux, Windows, and OSX. Many may argue that OSX doesn’t count because it is mostly for desktop virtualization and not server virtualization, but that is quickly changing.
Microsoft is working on releasing their Virtual Server 2005 (maybe they might update the name before they ship it in 2008) and VMWare has a full line of products ranging from VM workstation up to VM data center level software, which can run on windows or linux hosts, and possibly some products on OSX.
So now as virtualization picks up, and soon people will be able to swap between virtual machines as easily as switching between applications on their desktop what will the future bring?
Will Apple win, able to look pretty and run virtualized linux and windows applications using Parallels or a future product no yet on the market, or even better yet built into Leopard?
Will Windows win, having a strong foundation in the server market and home user base, and the ability to not allow licensing for their os onto other host virtual machines?
Will Linux take off due to the low entry cost, and open source easy to modify options, where a company can modify the host node to exactly their specs and not have to deal with licensing and EULA issues?
Xen and OpenVZ are both very popular products which having a growing support behind them to take their respective place in the virtualization marketplace.
What will the future bring? As the lines are getting blurred between Apple, Linux, and Windows who will win?
December 8th, 2006 at 2:38 am
Interesting question–this very topic is currently being debated on a number of virtualization-related sites:
VirtualizationDaily:
http://www.virtualizationdaily.com/archives/86_the-os-is-under-attack-continuing-the-conversation.html
blog.scottlowe.org:
http://blog.scottlowe.org/2006/12/05/the-future-of-the-os/
VMTN Blog:
http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2006/12/role_of_the_os_.html
My opinion (as expressed in the above conversation) is that we will eventually arrive at a place where the necessary technologies (primarily virtualization) will enable users to use whatever desktop environment they prefer yet still easily and seamlessly run whatever applications (for whatever OS) they need. Windows apps on OS X, Linux apps on Windows, Mac apps on Windows–doesn’t matter, API emulation and virtualization will handle all the details.
The winners will be those vendors who are preparing to embrace this kind of environment. I believe that Microsoft isn’t quite there yet, whereas Mac OS X and Linux are a little more open to the idea.
Scott