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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