I am wondering whether there is a specialized distribution out there that does nothing beyond serving as a platform for running virtual machines (and therefore consumes no more than the necessary minimum system resources).

What I want is a machine for running several VMware or VirtualBox desktop OSs. I can, of course, start with any distribution (such as Ubuntu, which I use most of the time) and remove software I don't need. However, I am not a highly knowledgeable user and don't always know whether something is necessary or not, so a specialized distribution could make things easier for me.

I'd be surprised if nobody ever thought of making a desktop-oriented distribution that does just that, but I couldn't find any. Is there really no such distribution?

There would be very little demand for a desktop-oriented distro like this + there are minimal desktop distros so you can start with them and simply add virtualization.

Go the other way: install a "server oriented" ubuntu (or similar) and add a lightweight desktop + virtualizer.

Proxmox is such a distro.
vmware offers what is basically similar with their esxi server.

See also maybe a JEOS or just enough OS distro. SuseStudio can create one or there are others.

Proxmox is not a desktop-oriented distro! WTF?

(Speaking as someone who colocates half rack worth of servers running Proxmox)

z/VM ?.
Introduces some (significant) restrictions of course ...

Thank you all for the answers, which I'll now look into.

Free Edition: can register and download installer
http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphe.../overview.html

RedHat Hypervisor
http://www.redhat.com/virtualization...op/hypervisor/

Windows Hypervisor
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/serve...r/hyper-v.aspx

Parallels
http://www.parallels.com/virtualization/server/

I believe you are finding bare-metal virtualization. Personally I prefer VMware ESXi
Good Luck

If your hardware is supported +1 for ESXi

Who said the phrase desktop oriented was a requirement? The OP asked for a VM only distro.

"What I want is a machine for running several VMware or VirtualBox desktop OSs. I can, of course, start with any distribution (such as Ubuntu, which I use most of the time) and remove software I don't need."

Proxmox and many others would suit the need I feel.

The OP did?

Thanks for the additional suggestions.

My intention in asking about a "desktop oriented" distribution was simply that I was looking for something I can run on a desktop computer. Perhaps it was not a good choice of words, as the (rather vague) term "desktop oriented" is often used, I think, to describe distributions that come loaded with applications for common desktop uses (office suites, media players etc.), as differentiated from ones that come with more specialized configurations.

What I have in mind is just an operating system which won't do more than what is necessary to run well VMware or VirtualBox virtual machines. Whatever does that efficiently (that is, I suppose, without running or installing on the HD all sorts of applications that aren't necessary if I don't use the host OS for nothing but as a means to run VMs) will do.

I fully understood your question but thanks for the extra clarification.

My guess is VMware's esxi server is about the most basic but it has only a very limited range of servers it can run on.

You could build a pretty small distro yourself at SuseStudio.com.

You may also be interested in other ways such as netboot.me or boot.kernel.org which are examples of gpxe/ipxe booting. Similar could be made at home or from iscsi server.

I would think that it might be possible to make a bartspe disk with qemu on it too.

In a real example you could use gentoo or linux from scratch to compile a one of a kind kernel just for your computer that only had the drivers you need and then add in only the files needed to support a vm.

About half the vm apps don't offer direct gui support. They leave that to a server to display usually on a web page.

There is also JPC. http://jpc.sourceforge.net/home_home.html Try it. So a distro that only had a browser would do. Not sure there is a stand alone browser like mplayer is.

Thanks, interesting ideas!

Although it is not a Linux solution, NetBSD makes for an excellent lightweight Xen virtualization platform. Another option is to choose the Basic installation option in Salix, which is Slackware-based, and go with KVM.