Could Virtual Systems Replace the Host Operating System?

A VMWare cofounder says virtual appliances that run apps alone could threaten operating systems. Mendel Rosenblum told an audience at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco last week… By Robert Mullins, IDG News Service.
…that a virtual appliance, which bundles a software application with only the operating system code needed to make it run, can then be deployed on a virtualized server regardless of the host operating system. Rosenblum is also chief scientist of virtualization at VMware.

Asked if he thinks the virtual appliance model is a threat to OS vendors, principally Microsoft, Rosenblum said, “If I were in their shoes … I think the answer is yes.”

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