My FreeBSD-current/Xen install notes

[Julian Stecklina]

Peter Jeremy <peterjeremy at optushome.com.au> writes:

> On 2009-May-20 08:30:09 +0800, Adrian Chadd <adrian at freebsd.org> wrote:
>>Xen also lets you write "other" OSes without needing to care about the
>>hardware. One of my friends bootstrapped a toy OS of his inside Xen.
>>He can then run it on any and all Xen boxes, unmodified, regardless of
>>the underlying hardware. That really hasn't been exploited to its full
>>potential though.
>
> This isn't a particularly new idea: The 'CMS' part of IBM VM/CMS was a
> hypervisor-aware OS that couldn't run on bare metal.
>
> Relying on the hypervisor for some "traditional" OS services offers
> plenty of scope for interesting developments.  One area would be in
> University Operating Systems courses - it would again be possible to
> offer practical coursework on operating systems that are comprehendable
> in their entirety (ala V6 and Minix).

You can use microkernels[1] for almost the same thing. It's what we do
at Technische Universität Dresden.

Regards,
-- 
Julian Stecklina

The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably the day
they start making vacuum cleaners - Ernst Jan Plugge

Footnotes: 
[1]  There is a sexy new microhypervisor to be released Real Soon
     Now(tm) too:
     http://eurosys09dw.systems.ethz.ch/steinberg.pdf