I just read about the new VM software called Parallels that runs on an Intel Mac.  Heck, I might finally consider getting an Apple Macintosh!

Parallels runs with Mac OS X on Intel 10.4.5 as primary OS (as well as lots of other OSes), and the Guest OSes that Parallels Supports include all the following:

Windows 2003 Standard Edition SP0, SP1
Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition SP0, SP1
Windows 2003 Web Edition SP0, SP1
Windows XP Professional SP0, SP1, SP2
Windows XP Home SP0, SP1, SP2
Windows 2000 Professional Edition SP4
Windows 2000 Server SP4
Windows 2000 Advanced Sever SP4
Windows NT Workstation 4.0 SP6
Windows NT Server 4.0 SP6
Windows ME
Windows 98
Windows 95
Windows 3.11
Windows 3.1
Fedora Core Linux 3, 4
Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS3, WS4
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS4
Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES3, ES4
Redhat Linux 7.3, 8, 9
Debian Linux 3.1
SUSE Linux 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3
Mandriva Linux 9.2, 10, 10.1
FreeBSD 4.1, 4.3, 4.5, 5.4
OS/2 warp 3, 4, 4.5
eComStation 1.1, 1.2
Sun Solaris 9, 10
MS-DOS 6.22

This virtualization stuff is getting really interesting…

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It’s nice to be correct. Or at least to suggest something that Microsoft ends up doing.  :) 

A few months back I suggested Microsoft give away Virtual Server, and today they are announcing just that!

Good deal.  Let the virtualization wars begin! :)

P.S. Now if Microsoft would just support the VMware hard disk format, and vice versa, customers would truly be the winners!

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As many of you know, VMware has released VMware Server for FREE!  I think it is an excellent strategy for VMware. VMware Workstation is already a favorite of most leading edge developers, and this move has a good chance of cementing VMware Server into developer’s psyche as well!  Many of my loyal blog readers know that, even though I founded and run¹ a .NET component and tools reseller at Xtras.Net, I am a huge proponent of infrastructure and middleware software needing to be open source or at least free. 

I commend VMware for embracing the competitive challenge of Microsoft and open-source moving into their backyard and offering the GSX Server for free. This will almost certainly help VMware establish their virtual images as the defacto standard for VMs as Adobe did their PDFs for digitized documents.  With VMware Server becoming free, software vendors will now be able to deliver complete server-based solutions as virtual images that will require almost not configuration to bring online. Hosting companies can start offering Virtual Machine hosting where you upload your VMs (but this will ideally need some excellent differencing software to cut down on huge upload times.)  Installation vendors can start adding VM deployment to their feature list.  And I’m sure there are hundreds of other things this will enable that I haven’t even concieved of!

Of course this will put huge competitve pressure on Microsoft with it’s Virtual Server, and has a chance of rendering the open source Xen project still-borne.  I’m not sure how I would suggest Xen counter this move, but if I were Microsoft I would be releasing so fast as to make the industry pundits head’s spin a Windows 2003 Server Option Pack for free that included Microsoft Virtual Server.  I’d even go so far as to release a free Windows XP Option Pack that included Virtual PC too.  Minimally they need to roll it into the next major version of Windows Server. Given VMware’s stronger market position in this type of software, the fact they VMware offered theirs for free first, and the fact EMC is no startup and can hold it’s own with Microsoft, I doubt Microsoft would run afoul of anti-trust regulations for offering their Virtual Server/Virtual PC duo for free.  If Microsoft does do this it will create a three-way competition for freely deployable VM server software and the likely competition should benefit everyone.

Now if VMware would just create some rational pricing options for VMware ESX Server instead of charging a minimum suggested retail price of $3750 for a 2CPU system!!!  I’m thinking they will do much better if they allow their pricing to scale down as low as $199 for a version that supports 1CPU and 2Gb RAM. As is, a company will have to be able to gain some serious benefit from VM before they can even consider upgrading to ESX Server.  But with the former GSX Server going free, maybe it’s in the cards.

P.S. It would also be great to see them create a lesser expensive VMware Workstation to encourage more people to try it out too.

¹ UPDATE: As of May 18th, 2006, I am no longer run Xtras.Net nor did I retain any association with Xtras.Net.
 

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I just spotted the new free VMware Player.  This is totally cool. 

I can envision companies using VMWare Player to demo complete environments, like an ASP.NET & SQL Server Express application; just configure the virtual machine to have everything needed! This basically eliminates most potential configuration problems that could cause a vendor to loose a sale when the software is what the prospect needs but getting it to work is too difficult or time-consuming for the prospect.  This is especially important for lower priced software.

ISVs could even start shiping preconfigured software using VMWare Player.

This is definitely something to watch.

I wonder when/if Microsoft will do something like this with their Virtual PC/Server technology?

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