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DATE 2006-04-01

HANGOUT

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Key: Value:

Key: Value:

MESSAGE
DATE 2006-04-03
FROM From: "Inker, Evan"
SUBJECT Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Microsoft starts supporting, er, Linux
Microsoft starts supporting, er, Linux
Forms gang with open source chum
By Ashlee Vance in Mountain View
Published Monday 3rd April 2006 19:11 GMT

Microsoft today lobbed three massive bombs into the server virtualization
market. First off, it will now support - wait for it - Linux, when the OS is
running on top of its Virtual Server product. Secondly, Microsoft has made
Virtual Server free. And, in a move few thought possible, Microsoft has
teamed with the developers of the open source Xen product to gang up on
server slicing leader VMware.

Given these moves, we're reminded of the scene from Spaceballs when Lord
Helemt orders an underling to thrust his ship from light speed to ludicrous
speed. "Prepare ship, prepare ship for ludicrous speed. Fasten all seat
belts, seal all entrances and exits, close all shops in the mall, cancel the
3-ring circus, secure all animals in the zoo..." shouts the underling.

Up until now, you've been able to run Linux on top of Vitural Server, but
Microsoft refused to help out with any problems a customer might have with
the combination. Not anymore.

Microsoft will offer 24-hour support to customers running enterprise and
standard versions of Red Hat and Novell Linux in conjunction with Virtual
Server 2005 R2. Beyond that, Microsoft plans to distribute "virtual machine
add-ins" that make Linux guest operating systems work better with its
product. The add-ins will help out with mouse and display driver functions,
SCSI disk emulation and guest and host synchronization.

Microsoft will release even more add-ins with an update to Virtual Server
2005 R2 due out early next year.

"Customers who have questions regarding the interoperability with Linux
guest operating systems and the virtual machine add-ins will be able to
access the standard Microsoft support process," Microsoft said.

Now to the pricing front.

Above, we mentioned the upcoming update to Virtual Server. Microsoft had
hoped to bring out this update in 2006 but, like all of its products of
late, let it slip to next year. That's a particularly damaging delay given
that it means Microsoft will fall behind rivals VMware and XenSource with
regard to tapping into new virtualization-friendly hardware in server chips
from Intel and AMD. The chips deliver serious performance and management
gains by making it easier to set up virtual operating systems.

Microsoft's second product delivery problem comes in the form of its
next-generation server virtualization software. Microsoft is the only major
player not to use a hypervisor that sits directly on the server hardware at
this point, preferring instead to run Virtual Server on top of Windows. That
changes in 2008 or 2009 when Microsoft will bundle a hypervisor into
"Longhorn" Server via a service pack.

Up to this point, Microsoft sold Virtual Server for $100 or $200, depending
on the number of processors in a server. Now, it's throwing out the price,
preparing for the bundling scenario a bit early. Customers can pick up
Virtual Server 2005 R2 as a free download. Microsoft product marketing man
Zane Adam made it rather clear that this move was intended as a blow against
VMware.

"In light of this and other market trends, I believe customers will think
twice before spending thousands of dollars for other virtualization products
that very well could be at no charge in a couple of years," he said.

One thing to keep in mind is that Microsoft does not really have an answer
to VMware's high-end ESX Server product at this time. It won't until the
hypervisor-based product comes out near the end of the decade. So, er,
VMware has a big cushion.

However, Microsoft's moves and the increasing traction of the free, open
source Xen hypervisor are going to make life more difficult on VMware,
particularly in the large Windows market.

"With so many free, near-free, and built-in product out there, it's going to
be increasingly tough for a standalone virtualization company to make money
- especially if you look out 18 months or so," Illuminata analyst Gordon
Haff told us.

And that brings us to the third bit of the puzzle.

Microsoft uses something called the Virtual Hard Disk file format to capture
virtual server images and pass them around physical boxes. It happens to
have licensed this technology to open source specialist XenSource - the
leading user of Xen.

Microsoft has not granted a similar license to VMware for rather obvious
reasons, and VMware is not too happy with the direction things are taking.

So, VMware announced today that it has opened up its own virtual machine
disk format and made it free of charge. "The virtual machine disk format
specification describes and documents the virtual machine environment and
how it is stored," the company said. "Patch, provisioning, security,
management, backup and other infrastructure solutions for virtual machine
environments all heavily depend on the virtual machine disk format. Based on
this dependency, having an open and unrestricted virtual machine disk format
is critical to the broad-based development of new solutions and value-add
for virtual environments."

VMware's chief Diane Greene went so far as to start a new blog just to have
a go at Microsoft's maneuvering on the file format front.

Today's moves show quite clearly that Microsoft knows it has an inferior
product at the moment and needs to stop customers from defecting to VMware
and Xen and to stop potential customers from experimenting with the rival
virtualization packages. Without a hypervisor-based product, Microsoft can't
come close to matching Xen on performance and it's years behind VMware from
a product maturity standpoint. Microsoft can really only cater to mid-market
customers, which happens to be a huge market in the Windows arena.

With all the delays around its server virtualization products, Microsoft had
to do something drastic. And, in fact, its move to free is the biggest blow
against VMware's lucrative model to date - at least from a marketing
standpoint.

VMware, however, still brings in more than $100m per quarter from its
products, while Microsoft and XenSource bring in a few bucks here and there.

You can tell that VMware has become a major target for Microsoft and Xen and
one that they're willing to go after together.

If you weren't paying attention to server virtualization, today's
announcements should wake you up. Another battle for your operating system
is on in a massive, massive way. And it's getting ugly quick.

You can find out more about Microsoft's moves from the Beast itself over
here. ®



  1. 2006-04-03 From: "Inker, Evan" <EInker-at-gam.com> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] A Tale of Complete Stupidity and Its True! Ok
  2. 2006-04-03 Ruben Safir <ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Re: Community Meeting
  3. 2006-04-03 From: "Inker, Evan" <EInker-at-gam.com> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Microsoft starts supporting, er, Linux
  4. 2006-04-05 From: "Inker, Evan" <EInker-at-gam.com> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Bill Introduced in Minnesota to Require Use of "Open Data Formats "
  5. 2006-04-05 Ruben Safir <ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] [Fwd: ISOC-NY presents Eben Moglen]
  6. 2006-04-06 From: "Inker, Evan" <EInker-at-gam.com> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] FW: Come hear IBM, HP, Intel, Red Hat & others implement Linux/Op en
  7. 2006-04-06 From: "mlr52-at-michaellrichardson.com" <mlr52-at-michaellrichardson.com> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Paging Joanne
  8. 2006-04-09 Ruben Safir <ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] [Fwd: E-Update for the Committee on Technology in Government of
  9. 2006-04-10 Ruben Safir <ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Re: C3 EXpo Red Hat Keynote
  10. 2006-04-10 Ruben Safir <ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Re: C3
  11. 2006-04-10 Ruben Safir <ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com> Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Re: C3
  12. 2006-04-14 WWWhatsup <joly-at-dti.net> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] COMEDIES OF FAIR U$E NYU 4/28-4/30
  13. 2006-04-22 Ruben Safir <ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] [Fwd: E-Update for the Committee on Technology in Government of
  14. 2006-04-23 einker <eminker-at-gmail.com> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] NYLXS East Group
  15. 2006-04-24 WWWhatsup <joly-at-dti.net> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006
  16. 2006-04-24 Ruben Safir <ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com> Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] the Intellectual Property Protection Act of
  17. 2006-04-24 Ruben Safir <ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Sun CEO Scott McNealy Steps Down
  18. 2006-04-24 einker <eminker-at-gmail.com> Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006
  19. 2006-04-26 Ruben Safir <ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Human Language Study
  20. 2006-04-28 From: "mlr52-at-michaellrichardson.com" <mlr52-at-michaellrichardson.com> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Fwd: [nylug-announce] NYLUG April General Mtg (5/4): Dr.
  21. 2006-04-28 Contrarian <adrba-at-nyct.net> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] April board meeting
  22. 2006-04-29 Contrarian <adrba-at-nyct.net> Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] April board meeting -- awaiting all

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