What is it ? Run linux on windows!
Umlwin32 is based on the User Mode Linux source code (See UML website for more details)
This is a port of linux kernel as a user mode process on windows platform. It provides a true linux environment without an emulation layer and can execute native linux binaries within a virtual machine.
This project is in its early development process with the goal of creating a mature linux run-time environment on WindowsTM platforms within a virtual machine. Due to the inherent nature of Windows, there would be many limitations towards this, but we should be able overcome most of them and provide as authentic a Linux environment as possible. It would also be nice to have UMLWIN32 supported on as many flavours of Window platforms as possible.
What can it be used for?
There are many applications for umlwin32 apart from the obvious fun of being able to hack around with a Linux system running on top of Windows, in its own virtual machine.
Educational: UMLWIN32 could provide an educational platform for learning linux based network-management and administration, disaster recovery, kernel development and debugging etc.
Migration tool: It could be used as a tool for familiarising Windows users with Linux as a first step towards migration.
Generic platform: Depending on the performance and feature limitations, umlwin32 could potentially evolve into an open-source Linux virtual machine on Windows platform. This would enable Windows users to access Linux applications without need for an emulation layer.