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Microsoft Providing Virtual Server Free

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the right-price dept.

liliafan writes "In an effort to gain a market majority over VMware Microsoft announced it is giving Virtual Server away for free, additionally they will provide customer support for Linux. In a related move VMware have opened their partition file format to the community, aggressive and suprising moves in the virtualisation market."

5 of 401 comments (clear)

  1. Re:wow, more echoes from the past by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    And, unless I'm mistaken, this should be illegal.

    You're mistaken. That's not how anti-trust law (in the US works). The question is whether consumers are harmed, not competitors. You can make a case that killing VMWare would be bad for consumers in the long run, but that'd be difficult to show today.

  2. Bah... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Must better coverage over at this blog. Check out VMWare President Diane Greene's blog.

    And here is direct link to the Microsoft download page that requires registration.

    Direct link to the 32bit version: here. (no reg required)

    Direct link to the 64bit version: here. (no reg required)

    Happy downloading.

  3. My submission about VMWare was rejected.... by Malor · · Score: 5, Informative

    Note that VMWare is also giving away their Server product for free. For some reason, Slashdot hasn't been willing to run this story, even though it's important.

    It's a new product, still in beta... about equivalent to the GSX Server. They just released Beta 2 either today or yesterday. It's a _really_ good product. The current keys they're giving away expire, but they say the final version will also be free-as-in-beer.

    Basically, it'll do everything Workstation will, plus it allows you to see the consoles of virtual machines that are on another computer. It also gives you a fairly rudimentary web-based control panel, wherein you can start, stop, or restart particular VMs. You can also set up user accounts, and restrict access to particular machines appropriately. It's not ISP-class, but it'd be damn useful for QA teams or suchlike.

  4. Re:wow, more echoes from the past by LurkerXXX · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not just VMWare player. VMWare server is free as well (though still in beta at the moment, it is supposed to be free when finished)

  5. And don't forget AMD/Intel by PCM2 · · Score: 3, Informative
    Microsoft sees VMWare as their enemy because they are banking cash today. (Thou shalt have no other vendors other than Microsoft) However Xen is probably the bigger threat.
    Absolutely Xen is the bigger threat, but more importantly, the new Intel VT and AMD Pacifica chips are the writing on the wall for both VMware and Microsoft. The technology in these new chips makes it possible for XenSource to come out with a version of Xen that will run Windows, not just modified Xen OSes. It won't be hard for other folks to do the same. This obviates all the hard R&D work that Connectix and VMware put into doing the same thing without hardware support. In the very near future, the ability to provide virtualized systems and run virtual machines will be a non-issue. The only race left is to deliver the best support and management tools.
    --
    Breakfast served all day!