For all the sales pitches on CloudForm and OpenShift “open” cloud initiatives, Red Hat Summit attendees were far more interested in more prosaic (ie useful) things. First and foremost, they love that the next release of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) will rid them of the much-derided Windows Server requirement for managing their VMs.
And it’s not just any Windows Server. To run the current RHEV management, users must get Windows Server 2008, R2. “You need the latest and greatest,” said an IT manager with a big Linux-oriented systems integration firm. No admins want to work with two sets of tools, said another attendee.
Face it, Linux shops have Linux skills and many want absolutely nothing to do with Windows. Full stop. They barely tolerate the sound of Windows boot-up music emanating from reporters’ laptops.
The odd Windows console requirement is a remnant of Red Hat’s acquisition of Qumranet, and its KVM virtualization expertise but it’s nearly over. The Windows-less RHEV 3.0 is due later this year.
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