Room for more than one default hypervisor in the Linux kernel?

Quoting from InfoWorld:

A year ago, the news that Xen virtualization support in the Linux kernel was just around the corner grabbed headlines.

But today, the Xen hyperpatch has still not yet been merged with the Linux kernel. And in the meantime, some believe there may now be an opportunity for more than one hypervisor in the Linux kernel.

“Architecturally, there are increasing discussions in the industry about the equivalent of an API on a hypervisor level, within the Linux kernel,” said Andrew Morton, maintainer of the Linux 2.6 kernel, whose full-time work on the Linux kernel is sponsored by the Open Source Development Labs. “Theoretically, different hypervisors could play in there, without it being restricted to one default hypervisor. Different, competing hypervisors would be able to provide the virtualization functionality, and ultimately the virtualization itself would become so transparent and good that users would not need to re-certify the same version of the kernel when running on top of a hypervisor.”

A year ago, the headlines suggested that Xen had won the Linux virtualization battle. But has the delay in the Xen patch for Linux kernel support left the door open for VMware?…

Read the whole article at source.