Two years after a 2008 announcement, virtualization giant VMware still does not have a definite release date for a key technology required to bring virtualization to the desktop. The creation of a client hypervisor is necessary to allow the running of virtual machines directly from PC workstations or laptops, as opposed to running them off a central server. The idea is to marry the benefits of central management where virtual machines are concerned, while at the same time giving users access to applications that are much more responsive.

While the concept is sound, implementation appeared to be a lot trickier. Even rival Citrix--who earlier this year unveiled a test version of a bare-metal desktop hypervisor, had acknowledged that dealing with issues such as audio, USB devices, Bluetooth and other aspects of a typical desktop means that creating a client hypervisor is more complicated than a server-only solution.

On the topic of a client hypervisor, Bogomil Balkansky, VMware's vice president of product marketing acceded that this is "not an easy computer science problem to solve." When pressed on the release of its own client hypervisor, Balkansky said "we don't have a timeline."

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Computerworld 

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