Xen FAQ General
What is the Xen Project Hypervisor?
The Xen Project Hypervisor is a virtual machine monitor (VMM) for x86-compatible computers. The hypervisor can securely execute multiple virtual machines, each running its own OS, on a single physical system with close-to-native performance. You can find an overview at Xen Project Software Overview.
I'd like to read some kind of overview about Xen Project software
See the Xen Project Software Overview wiki page and Category:Overview. Also check the following PDF documents (which are somewhat out-of-date):
- http://www.xen.org/files/Marketing/WhatisXen.pdf
- http://www.xen.org/files/Marketing/WhyXen.pdf
- http://www.xen.org/files/Marketing/NewtoXenGuide.pdf
- http://www.xen.org/files/Marketing/HowDoesXenWork.pdf
How is the Xen Project software licensed?
Xen Project software is Open Source, and is released under terms of the GNU General Public License v2. Some Xen Project elements may contain licensing exceptions or a small number of files which are licensed under a GPL compatible license. If so, the source repository contains a COPYING file providing more information (see here for the COPYING file for the hypervisor).
Xen Project software does not come with an End User License as the GPL suffices. There is however a trademark policy that restricts the use of the Xen Project brand to ensure that all Xen Project branded hypervisors are compatible and will run the same guest VMs. You can find the trademark policy here.
There is a separate trademark for Xen alone. That trademark is owned by Citrix, which controls the use of that mark.
Operating systems or other applications written to use Xen Project's hypercall interface are not derived works of Xen Project, hence may be licensed differently.
Where can I read about the history of the Xen Project?
Please see the history article on the main XenProject.org website.
Where do I find information on Compatibility?
You can find answers to questions such as the following, at Xen Project FAQ Compatibility:
- Which OSes run on the hypervisor?
- Does Xen Project support Microsoft Windows?
- Does Xen Project run on laptops?
- Which architectures does Xen Project support?
- Does Xen Project support 32bit and 64bit?
