Re: Xen is a feature

Chris Friesen
2009-06-04T15:32:19Z

George Dunlap wrote:
> Frans Pop wrote:
>
>>! The kernel policy always was and still is to accept only those
>>! features which have a technical benefit **to the code base**.

> If (hypothetically) we merged Xen into Linux, then (people are
> suggesting) the coolness of Xen would actually contribute to the
> coolness of Linux ("add technical benefit to the code base"). People
> would feel like working on the interface between linux-xen and the rest
> of linux would be making their own piece of software, Linux, work
> better, rather than feeling like they have to work with some foreign
> project that doesn't make their code any cooler.

I suspect that there is an element of this.

There is also the factor that if Xen was merged into linux, we would
then be able to work towards a sane(r) virtualization layer that would
be useful for KVM, Xen, and possibly others. This provides a technical
benefit to the code base by introducing a more logical organization
rather than having ad-hoc changes sprinkled all over.

Chris