Plex86

Plex86 is a project to create a virtual machine for the x86 architecture that runs Linux operating system. The machine runs only Linux because, according to the creator, it makes the architecture of the machine "the order of 10x or 100x more simplistic." [1]

According to the project page, the initial program was released on 17 February, 2003, which is perhaps the date for the beginning of the project.