VWware Quakes in Fear

Wed Feb 8 06:56:44 PST 2006

I hate to tell you this, but Xen is NOT the reason they did this.

It's Microsoft.

-Anne

On Tue, Feb 07, 2006 at 10:08:12PM -0800, Jim Dennis wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 06, 2006 at 01:29:13PM -0800, Jennifer Davis wrote:
>  
> > First vmplayer.. now vmware server! Excellent!
> 
> ... and forwarded the following spam to the list:
>  
> > Dear VMware customer,
>  
> > As part of our strategy to make server virtualization universally
> > accessible, VMware(R) today introduced VMware Server - a free
> > virtualization product for Windows and Linux servers.
> 
>  My opinion of this should be pretty obvious.  VMware Inc. is
>  quaking in their boots at the threat of Xen combined with the
>  new generation of VMX/VT-x (Vanderpool) and Pacifica chips which
>  provide the hardware virtualization support that Xen needs to
>  host non-co-operating (unmodified) operating systems.
>  
>  They are pushing a "free" (gratis) product as a desperate measure
>  to stem the tide while the free (libre) community effort is ready to 
>  soak up all of their marketshare.
> 
>  Personally I haven't see that the Xen product has the polish for
>  widespread end customer use.  Xensource needs to provide some nice
>  GUI tools for "those people."  Meanwhile VMWare Inc.'s concerns
>  are well founded; there customer service reputation seems to be pretty
>  bad --- so customers are desperate to get away from them for
>  non-technical as well as non-fiscal reasons.
> 
>  (BTW: "free" means something like "free for personal use." 
>  I think companies need to make arrangements with VMware, Inc. 
>  in order to distribute the server, even in-house.  In other words, 
>  I could download it and use it; but I can't make it part of our build 
>  image for all the new machines without talking to them.  As always read
>  the licensing terms yourself and/or consult your own corporate counsel
>  before doing anything with this).
> 
> -- 
> Jim Dennis
> 
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