28/08/2026
🚀 **What if one powerful computer could run multiple independent Linux kernels at the same time—without using traditional virtual machines?**
A new project called **Multikernel Linux** is exploring exactly that idea. Instead of one Linux kernel controlling all CPU cores, memory, and hardware, the system can divide physical resources between multiple independent Linux kernel instances.
Could this become an interesting alternative to traditional virtualization such as KVM? The project has already published early performance comparisons, although there are still important trade-offs to consider.
It is still early in development, but the concept is fascinating—especially for the future of powerful multi-core servers.
👉 Read this article and discover a different way of thinking about Linux, virtualization, and modern server architecture!
A new Linux project is taking a very different approach to running workloads on powerful multi-core machines.
Multikernel Linux has released its first public kernel tree, based on Linux 7.0, allowing multiple independent Linux kernels to run side by side on the same physical machine.
One kernel acts as the host and can split CPUs, memory, and PCI devices between separate kernel instances. Unlike traditional virtual machines, these instances run directly on the hardware with their own dedicated resources instead of relying on a hypervisor.
The project also shared early comparisons with KVM, showing lower latency in some workloads. However, that performance comes with trade-offs, including higher power consumption.
For now, the first public release officially supports x86_64, with other architectures potentially coming in the future.
It’s still early days for Multikernel Linux, but it presents an interesting alternative to traditional virtualization.