Novell, Red Hat eye virtualization for Linux

Novell last week said it will soon detail plans to include server virtualization technology in its SUSE Linux operating system. Red Hat intends to do the same thing with its Linux distribution, and a leading contender for both vendors may be an open-source virtualization technology called Xen. Both Red Hat and Novell said they're also looking at a number of other virtualization technologies. Novell, for instance, is eyeing Acton, Mass.-based start-up Katana Technology's promised virtualization software, which is expected to run on Linux machines. Beyond that, all Novell will say is that it plans to act quickly. "We want to be aggressive about it," said Ed Anderson, vice president of marketing at Novell.

Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are already working with Xen, according to officials at each of those companies. Intel and AMD are particularly interested in ensuring that Xen works well with their chip-partitioning technologies, which are due out next year.

Xen is available for download from the Web site of the University of Cambridge in England, where the 3-year-old open-source effort is based. The creators of Xen plan to open a company called XenSource in Palo Alto, Calif., within the next few weeks to support users of the technology.