Hi all,
I’ve been reflecting on how the Fedora / Red Hat ecosystem positions itself around virtualization, especially given the recent changes in the VMware landscape.
Since the Broadcom acquisition, a lot of organizations (large and small) seem to be rethinking their approach. In many cases, the discussion is not about moving to the cloud or Kubernetes — it’s simply about finding a reliable, simpler way to run virtual machines on-prem.
From a technical standpoint, the Fedora ecosystem is already very strong:
- KVM as a solid hypervisor
- libvirt and its tooling
- Cockpit (including cockpit-machines)
- Ansible for automation
All the core building blocks are there, and they are mature.
What I keep noticing, though, is that solutions like Proxmox VE are gaining traction not because they introduce new technology, but because they offer a fully integrated experience:
- a unified web interface
- sensible defaults
- built-in clustering and high availability
- and a very short path from installation to a usable platform
This made me wonder if there’s currently a gap between two ends of the spectrum:
- On one side: Fedora / RHEL + KVM → very flexible, but requires integration effort
- On the other: OpenShift Virtualization → powerful, but Kubernetes-based and relatively heavy for some use cases
There seems to be space in between for something simpler:
A lightweight, integrated virtualization layer that:
- does not require Kubernetes
- is easy to deploy and operate
- provides a cohesive user experience
- stays aligned with the Fedora / Red Hat ecosystem
I’m also thinking about smaller environments:
- small organizations and associations
- educational setups or labs
- individuals running a few hosts
These users often don’t have dedicated platform teams or deep Kubernetes expertise. They just need something that works, is easy to understand, and doesn’t take days to assemble.
Right now, the Fedora stack absolutely has the capabilities — but getting from “components” to “usable platform” still takes time and experience.
So I’m curious:
- Is this gap intentional from a strategic perspective?
- Is the long-term direction exclusively toward Kubernetes-based virtualization?
- Are there ongoing efforts (SIGs or upstream projects) to provide a more integrated experience on top of KVM?
- Or is this space simply out of scope for Fedora / Red Hat?
To be clear, this isn’t a criticism — the technical stack is excellent.
This is more a question about positioning and user experience, especially in the current context where many users are actively looking for simpler virtualization solutions.
Thanks in advance for your insights.
Regards,
GNU Tux