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The Xen of Virtualization
Looks like XEN is getting a lot of media attention these days, with the deal with Microsoft and all. Here’s another article: Climb Aboard the Xen Train.
I’m not sure what the deal with Microsoft will do to XEN, but my gut feeling is to be wary of anything touched by Microsoft. While they clearly target VMware (an enemy of my enemy is my friend, and the cancer of open source be damned), I don’t know how this will play out with XEN itself. On the other hand, it wouldn’t hurt to take XEN through more paces and the list of guests and hosts seems to be on the rise. I just wish somebody would port OpenBSD as a guest.
Posted by markus on Monday, July 24, 2006(0) Comments • Permalink • Emulation • In the news • VMware
IE in a sandbox
As reported elsewhere, a new product has been released that tries to ride the wave of IE security flaws: GreenBorder Pro.
According to the overview page found on Greenborder’s site, their product runs IE on top of a (patented) virtualization layer, which is supposed to isolate IE from the base OS and also sports a “reset to pristine state” feature. I am a bit bemused by this; it’s been years since I actively used IE - other than for the infamous Windows Update and occasionally testing if a website is rendered correctly in that browser. Simply put, I personally have no need for a commercial product to sandbox a perpetuall security headache that I don’t use in the first place.
While it may be beyond the skill and comfort level of many users, I much prefer to grab a copy of the free VMware player and run the pre-built browser appliance on it. If you use virtualization at all, why not go whole hog?
By the way, I do wonder how this virtualization sits with Microsoft’s licensing department. Will they want you to get an additional retail license for Windows or will they let this narrow use slide?
Posted by markus on Tuesday, July 04, 2006(0) Comments • Permalink • In the news • IT Security • VMware
Microsoft getting on the bandwagon…
VMware releasing the free VMware Player opened up a lot of possibilities. In theory, an organization could purchase on licensed copy of VMware Workstation or one of the server products, build their own master images, and install the free player on as many desktops or possibly servers as they wanted. If one is happy with the pre-built or community-maintained virtual machine images, then even that expense could be spared.
The next big thing was for VMware to release an entry-level server product free of charge, too (currently still in beta). VMware’s workstation product is relatively expensive, particularly since the company discontinued the non-commercial and much cheaper license. Arguably, VMware Player can spark a lot of interest without savaging sales of the workstation product too much - or so I suppose. I’m curious about the business case for releasing a free entry-level server product, though. Perhaps more so than the Player, the Server has to be a loss leader…
Recently, Microsoft released their own server product for free. Again, I’m curious about their motivation. Perhaps it’s hardball competition with VMware, but more likely the target is Linux. Instead of flat out losing Windows Server installs to Linux, Microsoft may hope to encourage customers to run Linux virtual machines on an existing Windows server instead.
Posted by markus on Sunday, April 09, 2006(0) Comments • Permalink • VMware