Enlightened I/O is a specialized virtualization-aware implementation of high level communication protocols (such as SCSI) that utilize the VMBus directly, bypassing any device emulation layer. This makes the communication more efficient but requires an enlightened guest that is hypervisor and VMBus aware.

The drivers seem to be developed by Novell, so I guess the Boycott Novell guys will have some more coverage^Wrants soon (Update: can’t find the reference on this anymore, so this might be a false statement, sorry. Thanks for pointing out RubenV)

Interesting times on the virtualization front… Although I for one do not plan to replace Xen, xVM or VirtualBox anytime soon.

Sources:

• Microsoft Press Release
• Blog of the 451 Group
• LKML

On a side note: Red Hat entered the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, which might show Linux is gaining more interest from enterprises and investors.

“We regret Belgium doesn’t strictly adhere to this European standard, but chose a local implementation. As you know, respect for standards is important, especially in the domains of identification and authentication.”

- Phillip Vandervoort, General Manager Microsoft Belgium and Luxembourg

Emphasis is mine. Read in the 16/01 issue of the Belgian “IT Professional” magazine, page 29, included in the ProFOSS goody bag. The article is a response on an earlier published interview with Geert Mareels, manager of the Coordination Unit of Flemish e-Government, claiming one of the reasons e-ID isn’t widely used yet is due to Microsoft not providing any e-ID related solutions.

Original quote: “We betreuren het dan ook dat België deze Europese standaard niet volledig onderschrijft, maar gekozen heeft voor een lokale implementatie. Zoals u weet is het respect voor standaarden belangrijk, in het bijzonder in de domeinen van identificatie en authenticatie.”.