Will Virtual Appliances replace **Some** custom distributions? [LWN.net]

Will Virtual Appliances replace Some custom distributions?

Posted Aug 23, 2007 12:27 UTC (Thu) by JimCallahan (guest, #46959)
Parent article: The anatomy of a Linux distribution

There will always be a need for the major primary Linux distributions, but might some of the downstream Linux distribution bundling be better served by a download-able virtual appliance (image to be run on a virtual machine) rather than a an iso image an install CD/Live CD?

Virtual appliances would seem to be helpful where the primary purpose of the distribution is to distribute installed versions of desktop or server applications.

On the server side, there are already virtual appliances for LAMP web servers including application servers such as Drupal or Joomla, blogging software or even Wiki software.

On the desktop side, one could see distributions such as Edubuntu or Quantian becoming virtual appliances (minus the feature to convert a computer lab into a super computer). Academic, Scientific or engineering managers could have a standard university or corporate desktop and a virtual machine workstation running statistical, mathematical or engineering software. Managers could discharge their routine management responsibilities on the standard desktop (that's what it is for) and then analyze a data set or prepare a scientific paper using the specialized tools on the virtual appliance workstation.

Virtual appliances would not work for Linux distributions intended as rescue CDs or for converting a networked computer lab into an ad-hoc supercomputer.

What do you think?

Is there a more neutral term than VMWare's "Virtual Appliance?"
If existing downstream Linux distributions adopt this format should LWN and DistroWatch cover them?

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

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Will Virtual Appliances replace **Some** custom distributions?

Posted Aug 23, 2007 12:57 UTC (Thu) by JimCallahan (guest, #46959) [Link]

Imagine this scenario, a researcher/manager has a Windows PC at work and uses Microsoft Office (MS Word, MS Excel, MS Powerpoint & MS Access) and Lotus Notes, while having an Apple PC at home using iLife (Garage Band, iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb) and iWork.

On both the Windows work PC and Apple Mac home PC the manager runs VM software (either proprietary VMWare or open source XEN).

The manager keeps professional tools on a 4 gigabyte keyring USB drive.

The manager's profession might be bioinformatics, economics, statistics, engineering, chemistry, education or any other field that has a rich set of open source tools.

The tools run in their own (guest) operating system environment distinct from the primary (host) operating systems in use at home or work. The IT Department likes the fact that only the virtual machine software hits the real Windows PC registry.

I expect the above scenario will be commonplace in less than 3 years! By 2010 we will all be running multiple OS in virtual machines. Look at your Sunday newspaper adds -- all the big box retailers are advertising dual core notebook computers with a gigabyte of RAM for $500.

Given the recent VMWare IPO (the largest since Google) can we doubt that we are entering an era when virtual machines will become ubiquitous?

Of course their is always the "Grandmother test." Right now I am suggesting to my mother that her next computer should be an Apple Mac, use iLife to manipulate photos and run her remaining Windows apps (AOL, TurboTax?) in VMWare Fusion.

Yup, VMs are coming...

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL