San Francisco, CA: In a surprising move, the Linux Foundation, the non-profit organization dedicated to Linux, announced on April 15th at the Linux Collaboration Summit that the Xen Project, the open-source hypervisor, is becoming a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project.

Xen, which is now 10-years old, is an open source virtualization platform licensed under the GPLv2 with a similar governance structure to the Linux kernel. Citrix has been Xen's commercial backer since 2007. However, as the project experiences contributions from an increasingly diverse group of companies, Xen is looking to The Linux Foundation to be a neutral forum for providing guidance and facilitating a collaborative network. This new project is going by the old name: Xen Project.

While many users may not know Xen, many use it every day. Xen is the basis of not only many virtualization programs, but it's also the foundation of many cloud services, including the biggest cloud provider of all, Amazon Web Services.

According to the Foundation, "Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects are independently funded software projects that harness the power of collaborative development to fuel innovation across industries and ecosystems. By spreading the collaborative DNA of the largest collaborative software development project in history, The Linux Foundation provides the essential collaborative and organizational framework so project hosts can focus on innovation and results. Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects span the enterprise, mobile and embedded markets and are backed by many of the largest names in computing."

The following companies will be contributing to and guiding the Xen Project as founding members are: Amazon Web Services, AMD, Bromium, Calxeda, CA Technologies, Cisco, Citrix, Google, Intel, Oracle, Samsung and Verizon.

Critix will continue to play an important role. “The Linux Foundation will provide the necessary forum and guidance for the Xen Project to be adapted by the diverse group of contributors who are taking advantage of the project’s many benefits,” said Peder Ulander, VP of Open Source Solutions at Citrix. “We’re committed to the Xen Project and look forward to continuing our active participation and collaborating with companies across industries to advance Xen Project for multiple applications.”

Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation, said, “The Xen Project is an important open-source community project that provides valuable technology to the entire Linux and open source ecosystem. It’s a natural move for us to help nurture collaboration to advance this technology.”

In addition to providing the necessary framework to support the Xen Project community’s growth, The Linux Foundation also supports the KVM community by hosting KVM Forum and other activities that support the project. Zemlin said that advances in virtualization technologies are key to the ongoing growth of Linux in the enterprise and cloud computing. The open source model thrives when users can exercise freedom of choice, so supporting a range of open source virtualization platforms and facilitating collaboration across open source communities is a priority for The Linux Foundation.