OpenMoko really is remarkable, in terms of both the product itself as well as the philosophy of the company who freely give away all the keys to allow anyone to get the most out of the phone as can possibly be done.

XenSource and rPath
Virtualisation is becoming a big deal. Sure, it’s cool on the desktop – you can try out different Linux distros, and you can run Windows, MacOS and Linux all at the one time in separate windows. We’ve covered this before. But where virtualisation really will take off is in server environments.

There’s no shortage of server-side utility: virtual servers can run essential legacy apps even when there maintaining a separate physical server can’t be justified. Additionally, virtual servers can run a host of partitioned server environments on a single set of hardware. This decreases hardware costs, maintenance issues and even has a positive benefit on disaster recovery – bringing a dead server online is no harder than restoring a virtual hard drive onto a new, working system.

XenSource is a powerful and high-performance virtual server environment. By itself, it is important as is due to the facilities it offers and its native Linux support. However, it is fairly evident that virtualisation is becoming a more important emerging technology as we approach 2008.

Server manufacturers have been looking at providing firmware embedded virtualisation hypervisors rather than have their customers rely on software solutions that run on top of an installed OS. Speculators believe that a FOSS option is appealing due to its vendor neutrality, and consequently that XenSource is well-placed to capitalise on the coming demand if they can develop an inexpensive hypervisor that is able to easily be embedded within firmware.

This, too, then opens the way for another company which is sure to make a future mark; rPath have come about to solve the problem of converting software applications into appliances.