why do we want virtualization?

[ucjffj]

so future intel and amd cpu's will allow you to run 2 os at same time. what are the benefits of this?

 

[THUGSROOK]

thats a good question

 

[zephyrprime]

I think for most people it's a pretty useless feature. I've noticed on IBM's website that IBM touts the feature as a way to run several different servers on one computer with the benefit that one OS crashing will probably not crash the other OS.

 

[FishTankX]

One word.

Terminals

 

[VirtualLarry]

What the heck, it's a neat hack...so that crazy multi-booting fools like me, can run DOS, Win9x, W2K, and Linux, ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

No, really - for businesses that set up "virtual servers", it allows the entire OS of one of the "virtual machines" to crash, without bringing down the rest of them, all running on the same hardware. At least, that's how I understand it.

It could also be useful for tech-support or software testing/development - you could immediately switch between different "live" OSes to test out something. (Granted, most of the time, people doing that sort of thing have multiple machines to test on, but this would allow them to save space, etc.)

 

[iwantanewcomputer]

i've not heard of this...what's different about the cpus/when are they coming out?
it would be neat to run two windows OSs at the same time for testing out drivers/software or you could just do basic internet stuff on one and run all your apps on the other so you don't screw up your machine