My $.02

>> Does anyone have the time to explain what Xen is, how to use it, and if
>> it's appropriate for a home user like myself?
>>
> I'll give a basic overview.  I've never run Xen on any of my machines, but
> I know the theory behind hit.
>
> Xen is a hypervisor. A hypervisor is an abstraction layer that allows
> multiple OSs to run "simultaneously" on the same computer.  Think of Xen
> as a trimmed down version of VMware that requires modification to its
> client operating systems to run.  Xen is fast scalable, and rapidly
> developed -- an overall great product in my book.

Good overview.  I've been doing some testing of Xen at work with the idea
of server consolidation in mind.  Seems to do a great job for
linux/FreeBSD.  There is some talk of eventually being able to do windows
virtual servers without having to port the OS. If that becomes a reality,
then I see some amazing potential in an enterprise environment.

>
> Should you use it at home?

Home use is another story.  It's good If you're a tinkerer and want to
play with several opensource OS-es or have several small boxes running
that you want to combine into one bigger box.  You could also setup a
virtual network of machines for various testing.
You probably want do have a fair amount of ram and a good cpu to really
play with it.  How much depends on what you are trying to do.

Erich

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