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EMC To Acquire VMware

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the ch-ch-ch-changes dept.

kma writes "According to The Register, virtual machine software maker (and my employer) VMware Inc. will be acquired by storage giant EMC, pending the usual approval process." The article explains: "VMware makes the industry's premier set of partitioning tools for running both Windows and Linux on a single server and running multiple applications on a single system. EMC plans to grab the privately held VMware for $635 million in cash."

13 of 304 comments (clear)

  1. Costs? by -tji · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wonder if the pricing will change?

    At one time, vmware had home user pricing at something around $100. Then, they cranked it up to ~$300. Hopefully EMC will have some pricing options for home/hobbyist/non-commercial use. $300 is a bit too steep for me.. I can build another PC to run windows for that much.

    1. Re:Costs? by Deagol · · Score: 3, Insightful
      I bought into VMWare at v2.x -- the hobbyist/non-profit price of $100. Since then, they're damned upgrades have cost that much. I paid for the 3.x upgrade, and I'm holding steady at the 3.2.0-2230 build. As long as someone maintains the patches to allow this version to run on newer kernels, I'll stay here.

      As much as I really love VMWare (the software), I think the company's getting too high on the horse. Anybody remember that Accelerated-X package? Once the only x86 X version that would run more than one head? The one that everyone bitched about their prices? Well, I haven't even thought of them since XFree86 got dual-head running, and I imagine I'm not the only one (they were pretty arrogant on USENET, I recall).

      When VMWare dropped the home pricing a couple of years ago, I had high hopes for bochs and plex86. Unfortunately, I don't have much hope these days, as development pace appears to be pretty glacial. Some Linux distros need to pitch in to fund the plex86 project. Emulation/virtualization has been commoditized enough that we shouldn't be paying $300/seat for it.

      --
      Method of processing duck feet
    2. Re:Costs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Very uncommon for home users, perhaps, but for developers it's invaluable: VMs let one test software in a perfectly controlled and deterministic environment, and they let you test cross-platform software without having to have devoted machines for minor platforms, or even having to reboot.

      In other words, there is a potentially huge market for an affordable VM solution for small developers. But "affordable" is hard to define... given that we're used to getting our development tools for free, and our operating systems for free, even $100 seems like a lot in comparison, and the $300+ they charge these days is out of sight.

  2. Efficient Storage by davidstrauss · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Emulation seems completely the opposite direction I would want to take data storage, especially since performance and reliability are top concerns. How does adding an emulation layer enable the data environment?

    1. Re:Efficient Storage by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      no no nooo...

      Vmware is the ONLY way many of us can reverse engineer hardware for linux use.

      I reverse engineered a serial analog data stream from a PH meter, Refractometer, Ion meter and conductivity meter in a lab I worked at for use with linux by using vmware and running the closed app under windows 95 and sniffing the serial data stream.

      VMware is the hardware hacker's dream... It's a way to pry the data you need from the idiotic corperate world.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    2. Re:Efficient Storage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Neither Microsoft nor EMC is remotely interested in VMware Workstation (or Virtual PC for Windows). The interest is in VMware ESX server and Microsoft Virtual Server.

  3. Poorly worded article? by freeweed · · Score: 3, Insightful

    VMware makes the industry's premier set of partitioning tools for running both Windows and Linux on a single server and running multiple applications on a single system.

    I've been able to run multiple applications on a single system for many, many years now. It's called multi-tasking :) Or did they mean "running multiple operating systems on a single system", in which case isn't that redudant with the first part of the sentence (running both Windows and Linux on a single server)?

    Also, wouldn't a "set of partitioning tools" be something like Partition Magic or fdisk? Or are we using a more generic form of the word partition? I've used VMware a lot, and I had to re-read this a couple of times just to make sure they weren't actually talking about something else.

    Keeping things on topic, anyone know how OSS friendly EMC is? I'd love a free copy of VMware instead of guiltily using a years-old copy with a crack :/

    --
    Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
  4. VMware's VMotion by XNormal · · Score: 3, Insightful

    from http://www.vmware.com/products/vmanage/vc_faqs.htm l:

    What is VMotion technology?
    VMotion technology lets you move running virtual machines from one physical ESX Server to another while maintaining continuous service availability and complete transaction integrity. VMotion is enabled by the ability to keep the entire state of an x86 Server in software, which then allows that state to be duplicated and shifted from server to server. VMotion leverages a shared storage infrastructure -- such as a storage area network -- to allow the state of the virtual machine to be moved from one physical system to another without requiring its data to be moved.

    Yup. That sounds like EMC to me.

    --
    Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
  5. Re:Given that they need the money, I doubt it. by wackybrit · · Score: 3, Insightful

    VMWare is privately held, so I imagine there's only a few guys controlling/holding it. If someone came along and offered $600mn cash here-and-now, it's a bit of a no brainer, even if it burns your employees in the ass :-)

    --
    mogorific carpentry experiments
  6. Re:The Microsoft connection by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Since EMC itself is on the "short list" for aquisition by Microsoft, this seems less strange but still very interesting.

    Buying VMWare as a poison pill. Very interesting.

  7. VMware + EMC by 44BSD · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I can certainly see how a big player in the server consolidation biz might want to team up with a big player in the storage virtualization business.

    If VMWare's developers are going to be assimilated into EMC, I'm pessimistic about this thing. On the other hand, if EMC allows VMWare to maintain substantial autonomy, then it may work.

    I'm waiting for IBM to decide it wants to play bigtime in this space. They know how to run Linux on enterprise-caliber hardware, and could probably give "EMWare" a good fight.

  8. Re:Interesting by ebob9 · · Score: 3, Insightful


    Well, when Microsoft buys your competition, that can tend to change plans.

  9. Re:Wrong: Most VMware users need VMware by bonehead · · Score: 2, Insightful

    One more reason to stick with open source solutions, rather than poring money into companies that hang you out to dry after you QA the software for them.

    The problem with that, at least in this case, is that there ARE NO open solutions to turn to. Plex86 and bochs are probably the closest, and neither one is even close to being a suitable replacement for VMware.

    And that's just looking at their workstation product. The situation is even more grim when you go looking for an open solution to replace their server products with.

    Even if projects got underway today, they wouldn't be ready for a long time. Would be nice to have an open source alternative to ESX Server, though.