Ubuntu's Ibex Loads Up on Linux Features - Page 2

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Virtualization and OpenOffice

Building virtualization with Intrepid Ibex gets a boost with the Ubuntu-developed VM Builder tools. Barcet explained that VM Builder is a piece of Python code that creates Xen, KVM and VMware-based virtual machines.

"VM builder is a script you invoke where you define what you want as a machine and it will create a virtual machine so you can integrate it within an automated build process," Barcet said. "It can also be useful for administrators that want to deploy virtual machines on a wide number of machines."

However, Ubuntu Ibex does not have any sort of virtual machine migration technology, like VMware's Vmotion, that would enable a live virtual machine to be moved across physical servers in real time.

Barcet said Ubuntu developers are working on such features along with Red Hat and others in the open source community, as part of a wider open source virtualization effort.

Yet Barcet added that there is no real sense of urgency for Ubuntu on Vmotion currently, as the typical virtualization use case for Ubuntu is as a single host.

There is another key open source element that Ubuntu Ibex does not have by default. It does not include the latest OpenOffice.org 3 release. Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth noted on a conference call with press and analysts that he was a supporter of OpenOffice.org (OOo) and that he liked the new features in version 3.

But both Shuttleworth and his CTO, Matt Zimmerman, noted that OOo 3 didn't make it into Ibex because the latest version of the suite came out later than expected. As a result, Ubuntu wasn't able to do the complete testing to integrate it into Ibex by default.

Zimmerman added that OOo 3 is still available to Ubuntu users -- they just have to download and install it themselves, as opposed to getting it as part of the Ibex release.