intel to break msft OS monopoly?

[draggoon01]

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994215

Due for launch within five years, the chip will allow future machines to run, say, Windows XP together with Linux or the Apple operating system as easily as today's Windows computers run Word and Internet Explorer simultaneously.
...
The question of who will write and sell virtualisation software is likely to loom large. This year, Microsoft bought Connectix, a company in San Mateo, California, that makes virtualisation software.

 

[EeyoreX]

Such a hyper-OS would allow people using ordinary PCs to try out alternative operating systems, such as Linux, and the applications that run on them, without giving up Windows.

I can do this now, without any special hardware. IMO this won't make much difference, as this can already be done. And it doesn't require that much effort.

<edit>And I don't think Intel has all that much to gain or lose from "breaking" the Microsoft "monopoly". Have you ever heard of the PC being called a "Wintel" machine. Intel gets a lot of money from happles consumers who think they "need" an Intel processor to run Windows.</edit>

\Dan

 

[ProviaFan]

I can do this with VMWare, now. What really matters in most cases is the amount of RAM and disk speed, not the processor power. With 512MB of RAM, I am very limited. If I upgraded to 1.5GB, I would see a very large benefit.