Apparently Virtual Server R2 Enterprise Edition is now free. This follows on from a similar announcement from VMWare. I’m sure though that Microsoft’s argument will be that they aren’t following, rather that Longhorn will make virtualisation a commodity and they are just bringing the benefit in early.
Oh, and because it’s the Enterprise Edition that’s free, it effectively makes the Standard Edition a redundant product.
They also announced that Linux would now be ‘supported’ as a ‘host’ at LinuxWorld (where else).
Will this make a huge difference to most IT users – I don’t think so. But it will probably make a huge difference to a whole load of testers and developers.
Will this make a difference to VMWare? Probably. Although the VMWare product set is more mature, the challenge is whether people will initially choose a free product from a company they already deal with (Microsoft) or an organisation they don’t (VMWare). That makes it more difficult for VMWare to move people up to the full featured ESX product. And if people are making a choice for a development project today will they be expecting to deploy it on Longhorn server anyway.
On a slightly different question, if ‘virtual’ is the normal way of doing it is it still ‘virtual’?
via Adam’s Mindspace, Clive Watson, John Howard
Tags: Virtual Server, Microsoft, VMWare, Linux
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