Testing Protocols for F14

[Richard Ryniker]

I see virtual machines as a subset of the myriad of combinations of
processor, BIOS, support circuits and motherboards on which Fedora should
run.  VMs have some significant advantages in terms of convenience, but
just as an error observed on "real" hardware might be attributed to a
quirk or fault in that platform, so too an error in a VM might be the
result of some bug in the implementation of the VM.

Virtual machines will increase in importance to Fedora. There exist
operating systems that run only in virtual machines.  It is interesting
to speculate about a future where hardware manufacturers build products
that implement a standard virtual architecture, and some descendant of
today's Fedora runs just on that virtual platform, but this is not in our
near future.

Conclusion: virtual machines are valid and valuable tools useful to
develop and test software.  Errors observed in a VM environment should be
reported in the same way as errors on bare hardware, and should be
subjected to the same triage process that might elevate them to
"critical" status because they seriously impact operation on many (real
or virtual) platforms, or reduce them to "future consideration" status
because they have little impact, they occur only on platforms rare
enough to suggest a quirk or platform fault is their cause, or simply
because it is impossible to find the platform resources necessary to
investigate the problem.

> 2.  When the install calls for use of DVD, CD or LiveMedia is it 
> acceptable to use DVD.iso, CD.iso or LiveMedia.iso mounted to a VM as a 
> DVD, CD or LiveMedia?

Of course, but that is not the only configuration that should be tested.