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Debian Linux Adopts OpenVZ Virtualization Software

From:  Sharon Smith <linuxpr-AT-yahoo.com>
To:  linuxpr-AT-yahoo.com
Subject:  News Item: Debian Linux Adopts OpenVZ Virtualization Software
Date:  Fri, 4 Aug 2006 07:44:09 -0700 (PDT)

  http://openvz.org/news/announcements/debian-20060803
   
     
  Debian Linux Adopts OpenVZ Virtualization Software
  Users Can Benefit from Operating System-Level Virtualization Technology
   
  HERNDON, Va., August 4, 2006 -- The OpenVZ project (www.openvz.org) today
announced its operating system-level server virtualization software
technology is incorporated into Debian GNU/Linux giving users full access to
OpenVZ software, which helps increase server utilization rates.
   
  At the same time, the OpenVZ project revised licensing terms for its
user-level utilities under the GNU GPL license to comply with the Debian Free
Software Guidelines. Also, OpenVZ software now conforms with the LSB/FHS
(Linux Standard Base/File Hierarchy Standard).
   
  “This is an important milestone in delivering our open source
virtualization software to the user community and the large base of Debian
users,” said Kir Kolyshkin, manager of the OpenVZ project. “This represents
another step in our mission toward gaining adoption as part of the mainstream
Linux kernel and other Linux distributions, which now include Debian,
Mandriva, Gentoo Linux, and ALT Linux Sisyphus.”
   
  OpenVZ is operating system-level server virtualization software technology,
built on Linux, which creates isolated, secure virtual environments on a
single physical server – enabling greater server utilization and superior
availability with fewer performance penalties. The virtual servers ensure
that applications do not conflict and can be re-booted independently.
   
  Debian (www.debian.org) is a free operating system for computer users,
which uses the Linux kernel and adds functions from the GNU open source
project including thousands of software programs available for easy
installation. Initially, the OpenVZ software will be part of the Debian
distribution known as "sid" or "unstable," which is where most development
work is done.
   
  Users can access helpful installation instructions from the OpenVZ wiki,
http://wiki.openvz.org/Installation_on_Debian. The site serves as a forum to
gain and share knowledge about OpenVZ and includes documentation and a
knowledge base with helpful advice.
   
  With the power of modern CPUs from both Intel and AMD (including the latest
dual-core offerings), hardware is often under utilized. With virtualization
technology, the server can effectively be split into many small ones, each
running its tasks so that the whole server is utilized more efficiently.
   
  Debian users will be able to provision physical servers to run applications
on virtual servers, rather than a full physical server. The OpenVZ project
makes available Debian templates that allow for almost instant (in many cases
about a minute) provisioning of a virtual server.
   
  “Making OpenVZ virtualization available is a huge benefit for the Debian
user community,” said Till Brehm, chief technology officer, HowtoForge.com.
“We can gain significant benefits by carving physical servers into logical
units – most of all improved utilization rates, which results directly in
saved money.”
   
  The Debian software including OpenVZ can be downloaded here,
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/kernel-patch-op....
   
  About Debian
  Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system, developed by more than
thousand volunteers from all over the world who collaborate via the Internet.
Debian's dedication to Free Software, its non-profit nature, and its open
development model make it unique among GNU/Linux distributions.
   
  The Debian project's key strengths are its volunteer base, its dedication
to the Debian Social Contract, and its commitment to provide the best
operating system possible.
   
  About the OpenVZ Project
   
  The OpenVZ project freely distributes and offers support to its users,
promoting operating system virtualization through a collaborative, community
effort. Since going into full production late last year, the OpenVZ project
has been very active with the user community with more than 3,000 message
posts on its support Forum. The OpenVZ website attracted more than one
million hits for the month of April as more businesses and individuals
explore and contribute to the leading open source operating system
virtualization project.
   
  OpenVZ software comes with user tools that help automate management of
virtual servers. With its unique architecture that uses a single operating
system instance, the virtual servers perform and execute like independent
servers with their own memory, configuration files, users and applications.
Each can be re-booted independently. Using template-based application
deployment provides a simple way to get new virtual servers up and running in
minutes and OpenVZ can run several times more virtual servers per CPU than
other virtualization technologies.
   
  Supported by SWsoft, the OpenVZ project  serves the needs of the community
developers, testers, documentation experts, and other technology enthusiasts
who wish to participate in and accelerate the technology development process
OpenVZ is open source software that is used as the basis for the SWsoft
Virtuozzo virtualization software product. Also, the OpenVZ project maintains
a blog site discussing virtualization technology, which can be accessed here,
http://blog.openvz.org.
   
  #  #  #
     



 				
---------------------------------
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to post comments

Misleading headline.

Posted Aug 7, 2006 17:23 UTC (Mon) by vmole (guest, #111) [Link] (3 responses)

Debian did not "adopt" OpenVX. One or more people created, contributed, and will presumably maintain a set of Debian packages that make using OpenVX with Debian easier than starting from scratch. That's a good thing. Likewise, one or more people have done the same for Xen (or, at least, are working on it; I'm not sure of the current status.) Likewise, again, for User-mode Linux. That's one of Debian strengths: anyone may contribute whatever packages they find useful, so long as they are willing to follow the basic rules of Debian packaging and meet the licensing requirements.

However, attempting to imply that the Debian Project has "adopted" one of these technologies in preference to the others shows a lack of understanding of the Debian Project, or an intentional attempt to mislead.

A more correct headline (and subject line) would be "OpenVX Virtualization Software now Available in Debian Etch."

Misleading headline.

Posted Aug 7, 2006 18:23 UTC (Mon) by dowdle (subscriber, #659) [Link] (1 responses)

Hey man... what's "OpenVX"? A free implimentation of VX nerve gas?

Misleading headline.

Posted Aug 7, 2006 19:47 UTC (Mon) by vmole (guest, #111) [Link]

Sorry, I don't know where that came from. Bad fingers! Bad! Bad!

Misleading headline: Possible Mis-use of Debian Service Mark

Posted Aug 7, 2006 18:23 UTC (Mon) by AnswerGuy (guest, #1256) [Link]

Yes!

This is egregiously bad phrasing and may constitute a mis-use of Debian's
service mark. It's obvious to me that making a package available to Debian
does not constitute an endorsement by the Debian community nor by SPI.

Of course I don't speak for SPI nor for the Debian community --- so I'll
let them take up this issue on their own behalf.

Jim Dennis

Debian Linux Adopts OpenVZ Virtualization Software

Posted Aug 7, 2006 20:52 UTC (Mon) by micah (guest, #20908) [Link] (11 responses)

First of all, what is with the Windows characters in this press release email? I always assumed I was in a designated Linux Safe Zone when I visted LWN.net, I will have to perform various cleansing rituals all night long to rid myself of these impurities.

Second, why is LWN republishing a obvious press release about a package going into Debian? Especially when the press release is designed to get a company free advertising, rather than being anything particularly interesting. There are packages going into Debian all the time, and its not OMG news. This is exciting only for the OpenVZ guys because they got free advertising from LWN when the story was accepted.

Debian has had Linux-Vserver (and Xen) kernels for some time now, and there wasn't a huge press release sent out when that happened. Why? Because those are community efforts, without a budget to pay for someone (who clearly works on Windows) to craft press releases to send around to get more publicitity for their community project.

To press release or not to press release

Posted Aug 7, 2006 22:00 UTC (Mon) by dowdle (subscriber, #659) [Link] (2 responses)

So what you are saying is that the folks who did the Debian packages for Linux-VServer and Xen have been slacking and should be producing press releases? I totally agree.

I don't really see any font problems with the story... but then again I do have some additional fonts installed.

I'm not sure why SWsoft paying people to work on the OpenVZ project (which is a GPL project) is bad... nor do I see why releasing press releases are bad... nor do I see why LWN mentioning those press releases is bad.

BUT then again, I like and use OpenVZ and am fond of helping to promote it.

To press release or not to press release

Posted Aug 7, 2006 22:06 UTC (Mon) by micah (guest, #20908) [Link] (1 responses)

If volunteer run community efforts had money to burn in press releases they would become as popular as piles of garbage such as Windows. Clearly in our society, those with the money are able to crush those without, its too bad that its happening in the free software world.

I didn't say that paying people to work on the OpenVZ project is bad. I'm simply saying calling a spade a spade. This was an advertisement, and if OpenVZ wants to be known for being good at advertising, then thats their choice.

To press release or not to press release

Posted Aug 8, 2006 0:46 UTC (Tue) by dowdle (subscriber, #659) [Link]

Press releases don't necessarily cost money... in fact, press releases are poor peoples' advertising. LWN carries a large number of items pertaining to Linux... and yes even commercial product announcements... and press releases. While I'm not a fan of advertising and press releases, I mean... who is really?... I don't mind seeing banner ads on websites for community projects... nor do I mind press releases.

It is a no-brainer to say that the free software community could benefit by being more customer and business friendly... if it is in line with their project goals.

I agree with you regarding the conflicts possible between those with money and those without... but you seem to be completely ignoring the realities of the OpenVZ project... as I don't see it crushing anyone. In fact, the various process container virtualization projects are working together in an effort to produce a more generalized abstraction for the kernel.

I don't write this in an effort to perpetuate some misguided ego conflict. If you continue to disagree, more power to you... but I would appreciate a more respectful tone.

Debian Linux Adopts OpenVZ Virtualization Software

Posted Aug 8, 2006 14:58 UTC (Tue) by k001 (guest, #23495) [Link] (7 responses)

Micah,

(1) As dowdle said, press release is the thing anybody can do, and it doesn't cost you a lot of money, if any. Just fire up your oowriter or vim, and type in some news about your project -- and then spread it to the world, there are enough web sites to aim in that. Write a feature article about your project for LWN -- I'm sure Mr. Corbet will be interested. There are many more ways like that...

(2) As I understand the "Windows characters" you refer to are just some standard Unicode quotation marks -- and they are more in line with the USA typography standards (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark) than ASCII quotation mark. My browser (Firefox 1.5 under Fedora Core 5) does not have problems displaying those.

Regards,
Kir Kolyshkin

Debian Linux Adopts OpenVZ Virtualization Software

Posted Aug 8, 2006 18:20 UTC (Tue) by branden (guest, #7029) [Link] (6 responses)

Nope, they're Windows characters. Unicode has directional quotation marks, too, but that's not how these are encoded.

To see what I mean, go to the "View" menu in Firefox, and play around with the options under the "Character Encoding" menu. The quotes will display fine in "Western (ISO-8859-1)", even though they technically shouldn't, as ISO-8859-1 has no codepoints for such characters. This is no doubt a kludge made by the Firefox developers to work around tens of thousands if buggy webpages.

Next, try "Western (Windows-1252)". You'll see no change.

Next, try "Unicode (UTF-8)". Whoops. The quotation marks will go away, to be replaced by little boxes with "FFFD" in them. 0xFFFD is the Unicode replacement character. I don't have the space here to go into the semantics of it, but if the material were encoded in UTF-8 in the first place, you wouldn't see this behavior.

So Micah is right. They're Windows codepoints.

Correct UTF-8 as far as I can see.

Posted Aug 9, 2006 3:04 UTC (Wed) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322) [Link] (5 responses)

Either the page has been fixed or your Firefox is confused (perhaps by
way of being too helpful). The encoding of the source as fetched by wget
(which expresses no encoding preference) *is* UTF-8 and the proper
Unicode codepoints U+201c and U+201d are used, ie. the opening double
quote is the sequence 0xe2 0x80 0x9c. It looks fine in Konqueror *until*
I force the encoding to the wrong one; then of course I get nonsense
(a-hat, euro, oe-ligature in ISO 8859-15).

Correct UTF-8 as far as I can see.

Posted Aug 10, 2006 12:06 UTC (Thu) by k8to (guest, #15413) [Link] (4 responses)

jrodman@Skonnos:~ >wget -S --proxy=off http://lwn.net/Articles/194259/
--05:00:48--  http://lwn.net/Articles/194259/
           => `index.html'
Resolving lwn.net... 66.216.68.48
Connecting to lwn.net|66.216.68.48|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response...
  HTTP/1.1 200 OK
  Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 12:03:29 GMT
  Server: Apache
  Expires: -1
  Set-Cookie: OASISID="1519977789173"
  Content-Length: 33888
  Keep-Alive: timeout=3, max=100
  Connection: Keep-Alive
  Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Length: 33,888 (33K) [text/html]

100%[======================================================>] 33,888        
23.21K/s

05:00:50 (23.11 KB/s) - `index.html' saved [33888/33888]

As you can see, the charset is iso-8859-1.

Also, in the page source, you will find the tag:

<meta HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

ISO-8859-1 contains no open or close quote marks, only straight single and double quotes.

Correct UTF-8 as far as I can see.

Posted Aug 11, 2006 4:38 UTC (Fri) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322) [Link] (3 responses)

Ah. By the time I read the comments above, the quotes in the LWN article
had been corrected to use plain unidirectional ASCII quote marks, so I
presumed the complaint referred to the linked announcement page at
openvz.org. Which is returned with Content-Type: text/html;charset=utf-8
and has Unicode directed quotes.

I can't see the press release email to LWN so I have no idea what
character encoding it purported to use, or what kind of quote marks it
contained.

Where the error was introduced is a mystery, but my suspicions lie with
the X clipboard handling of one or more cross-platform application(s),
prime candidates being Thunderbird and Firefox.

Correct UTF-8 as far as I can see.

Posted Aug 12, 2006 8:07 UTC (Sat) by k8to (guest, #15413) [Link] (2 responses)

Though I'm no longer annoyed, you're still incorrect. The lwn.net article to which I am replying still contains invalid characters.

jrodman@Skonnos:~/fr0mble >wget --proxy=off 
http://lwn.net/Articles/194259
--01:01:18--  http://lwn.net/Articles/194259
           => `194259'
Resolving lwn.net... 66.216.68.48
Connecting to lwn.net|66.216.68.48|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 301 Moved Permanently
Location: http://lwn.net/Articles/194259/ [following]
--01:01:18--  http://lwn.net/Articles/194259/
           => `index.html'
Connecting to lwn.net|66.216.68.48|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 37,524 (37K) [text/html]

100%[===================================================================>] 
37,524        23.31K/s

01:01:20 (23.28 KB/s) - `index.html' saved [37524/37524]

jrodman@Skonnos:~/fr0mble >od -a index.html  | grep 'dc3'
0030200   r   d   )   .  nl  sp  sp  sp  nl  sp  sp dc3   T   h   i   s
0030500   p   e   n   V   Z  sp   p   r   o   j   e   c   t   .  sp dc3
0034240   r   v   e   r   .  nl  sp  sp  sp  nl  sp  sp dc3   M   a   k
0034500  nl dc3   W   e  sp   c   a   n  sp   g   a   i   n  sp   s   i

Each 'dc3' there is a non-ascii, non iso-8859-1 open quote. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to locate the accompanying non-ascii, non-iso8859-1 close quotes.

That open quotes and close quotes have correct representations in utf8 might be a good argument for shifting to this encoding for web-intended text. Even microsoft tools sometimes seem to generate valid text in this environment.

Correct UTF-8 as far as I can see.

Posted Aug 12, 2006 8:22 UTC (Sat) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322) [Link] (1 responses)

Alright already, I concede! Konqueror rendered all the quotes as straight
ones and when I looked at the html with od I saw the genuine quotes around
"unstable," and didn't examine the others too closely. I beg your pardon.
Now I look at it in Firefox (on Windows) it's glaringly obvious which
characters are out of place.

Correct UTF-8 as far as I can see.

Posted Aug 14, 2006 23:57 UTC (Mon) by k8to (guest, #15413) [Link]

Odd. My copy of konqueror renders them as open and close. Probably some
font weirdness.

Konqueror unfortunately seems to have a number of "helpful" features like
rendering microsoft quotes when they are incorrect, changing the color of
the scrollbar for the invalid CSS IE hack, and so on. I wish it had a
way to turn off these misfeatures.


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