Finally Linux kernel 2.6.20 is available! This release is interesting because it includes KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine), that enables you to run a virtualized computer with its own virtual memory, hard disks and other devices.
This means that you’re able to run other operating system under Linux using Virtual PC provided by KVM kernel driver. KVM has an advantage of being part of the Linux kernel and it uses processor extensions for virtualization compared to other virtual machine which uses emulation.
KVM uses modfied QEMU userland tools to manage its virtual machine and it has advantage over Xen because it can run unmodified operating system on its guest operating system. However, the current Linux release with KVM can’t be installed with Windows yet, due to a problem with the virtual APIC (bluescreen).
Although current benchmarks shows that KVM is still outperformed by Xen, Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine seems to be a promising alternative to other virtulization solutions out there due to the use of CPU-level virtualization technology.
p/s: KVM requires you to have Intel and AMD CPUs that supports hardware-level virtualization.
Reference: KVM wiki
[tags]linux,kernel,kvm,virtual machine,virtualization[/tags]