I already mentioned another article about this topic 2 weeks ago, but The Register wrote a very complete and interesting follow-up:
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“VMware have proposed an implementation that would allow, in theory, different kinds of hypervisors to run beneath the kernel,” Morton said, in an interview with The Register. “It is, if you like, a hypervisor-neutral interface. The question remains if we want to have a hypervisor neutral interface. There might be the case that this generic interface isn’t going to buy us anything, so maybe we will just merge with Xen.“That decision has not yet been made. We need to step back and have a think about how we are going to do this.”
Morton admits that he knows “very little” about the inner-workings of hypervisors – the core software layer used by some to manage virtual servers. With that in mind, he wants to see VMware and Xen developers hammer out the interface issue without involvement from him or Linus Torvalds.
“Any time Linus or I have to make a decision, the system has failed,” he said, noting that the kernel crew is eager to see this particular issue resolved.
The major problem, however, is that VMware and Xen developers don’t seem very close to having a meeting of the minds
The two camps have debated VMI for months on Linux kernel mailing lists, with other developers from IBM, Red Hat, Oracle and elsewhere chiming in.
“Most of our interactions have been on that level,” VMware senior director of research and development Jack Lo said.
VMware has reached out to the OSDL (Open Source Development Labs) and other unnamed parties to help set up a public forum for discussing the interface issue with Xen backers and anyone else who wants to show up.
But, after interviewing a number of people for this story, we get the sense that such a meeting is a concept at best right now. The parties involved proved reticent to nail down a time when they actually plan to sit down and don’t seem all that determined to approach a debate until all the behind-the-scenes political posturing has taken place…
I strongly suggest to read the whole article.