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I don't get the point of this article. After all, the OS is an abstraction layer other the hardware and anyway, most cool developments happen in software, not h

by vorador 17y ago

I don't get the point of this article. After all, the OS is an abstraction layer other the hardware and anyway, most cool developments happen in software, not hardware nowadays.

bensummers 17y ago
What about stuff like power efficiency, which is 'cool' because your portable device runs cooler, has a smaller battery, and gets a longer runtime between charges?
JoachimSchipper 17y ago
Yes, but hardware still matters. Look at virtualization - yes, VMWare and co mostly make it work, but it's slow, buggy and full of vulnerabilities. In short, it's a kludge.
- arethuza 17y ago
  I wouldn't describe VMWare ESX as slow or buggy.
  - rbanffy 17y ago
    Every x86 processors, however, is decidedly a kludge...
    - arethuza 17y ago
      Yes, but you can hardly blame VMWare for that.
      - rbanffy 17y ago
        No. Some kludginess is, in fact, excusable on grounds of being a counterkludge to unkludge the physical processor. ;-)
  - JoachimSchipper 17y ago
    I was under the impression that I/O performance, in particular, was still rather bad. The VMWare forums contain some links to http://vmfaq.com/?View=entry&EntryID=33 http://vmfaq.com/?View=entry&EntryID=33, for instance, which suggests about a 50% performance degradation for most virtualization products. Does this not apply (anymore) to ESX? I imagine it's improved somewhat, but AFAIK it can't match "real iron" speeds. I suppose that only gets worse as you add SANs, SSDs and other fun stuff. As to "buggy" - well, I consider anything with repeated severe security issues to be buggy. Just search for "VMWare vulnerability".
rbanffy 17y ago
Most cool developments happen in software (and have for the past decade) precisely because we have standardized our hardware. Look how long it took for multiprocessors to become mainstream. It's no coincidence it only happened after Windows NT displaced Windows 9x as the most common desktop OS. In fact, it only happened when Windows 9x's share became neglectable.

by vorador 17y ago

I don't get the point of this article. After all, the OS is an abstraction layer other the hardware and anyway, most cool developments happen in software, not hardware nowadays.

bensummers 17y ago

What about stuff like power efficiency, which is 'cool' because your portable device runs cooler, has a smaller battery, and gets a longer runtime between charges?

JoachimSchipper 17y ago

Yes, but hardware still matters. Look at virtualization - yes, VMWare and co mostly make it work, but it's slow, buggy and full of vulnerabilities. In short, it's a kludge.

arethuza 17y ago
I wouldn't describe VMWare ESX as slow or buggy.
- rbanffy 17y ago
  Every x86 processors, however, is decidedly a kludge...
  - arethuza 17y ago
    Yes, but you can hardly blame VMWare for that.
    - rbanffy 17y ago
      No. Some kludginess is, in fact, excusable on grounds of being a counterkludge to unkludge the physical processor. ;-)
- JoachimSchipper 17y ago
  I was under the impression that I/O performance, in particular, was still rather bad. The VMWare forums contain some links to http://vmfaq.com/?View=entry&EntryID=33 http://vmfaq.com/?View=entry&EntryID=33, for instance, which suggests about a 50% performance degradation for most virtualization products. Does this not apply (anymore) to ESX? I imagine it's improved somewhat, but AFAIK it can't match "real iron" speeds. I suppose that only gets worse as you add SANs, SSDs and other fun stuff. As to "buggy" - well, I consider anything with repeated severe security issues to be buggy. Just search for "VMWare vulnerability".

rbanffy 17y ago

Most cool developments happen in software (and have for the past decade) precisely because we have standardized our hardware. Look how long it took for multiprocessors to become mainstream. It's no coincidence it only happened after Windows NT displaced Windows 9x as the most common desktop OS. In fact, it only happened when Windows 9x's share became neglectable.