Re: [Xen-devel] "Bounties" on XEN to Windows2000 support

[Pete Taphouse <pete@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

> We are ready to spend more than 10.000 euros to help Xen to support Windows
> 2000
>
> I have the right number?
> Less or more than 10.000 euros (20.000 euros?)?
I asked a Microsoft sales guy about ports of Windows and got this quote 
forwarded from the Microsoft Research guys in Cambridge
<snip>
"The XenoXP work is not currently under active development.  Whilst
there is no *technical* reason that it can't be done (and it would
actually be much easier with the new Xen hypervisor interface), there
are many tricky political/legal issues.

Basically it comes down to the fact that Windows activation is based on
hardware signatures.  Running over an open-source virtual machine this
is not a meaningful thing to do.  To get XP working over Xen I basically
had to bypass the activation mechanisms.  I know of no easy technical
enforcement mechanism to prevent on copy of XP being run an arbitrary
number of times.

Obviously this would be a breach of the Windows license...

We did spend some time with lawyers investigating ways to release XenoXP
to the academic research community, but nothing came of it.

The obvious direction for VirtualServer to evolve is towards
paravirtualization.  I believe that there will soon be an MS
virtualization product which allows Windows to run very efficiently, and
furthermore it will be a *supported* hardware configuration for Windows.

Basically, from my own point of view there's not much more research in
completing XenoXP and too many awkward business issues to sort out."
</snip>

Cheers,

--
Peter Taphouse

Bytemark Hosting
http://www.bytemark-hosting.co.uk
tel. +44 (0) 845 004 3 004


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