Microsoft promises VMware beater despite reversals
82502
Blames media, not own, confusion WPC Microsoft has delivered a spirited defense of its Windows virtualization roadmap, blaming misreporting - not internal disorganization - for causing confusion.â¦
483913
(InfoWorld) - Two makers of virtualization software for running the Windows operating system on Apple's computers have issued dueling upgrades this week. VMware said Friday it's going to release sometime in June a beta 2 upgrade to itsÂ VMware virtualization software for the Mac, code-named Fusion. It will be an upgrade to the desktop virtualization for Macs product it first introduced in April 2006. Rival ParallelsÂ unveiled an updateÂ to its Desktop for Macs software on Feb. 27. Both use virtualization to run Microsoft's Windows on an Apple computer and make it possible for the user to switch from Mac to Windows without having to reboot. Among the improvements in VMware's Fusion is its ability to run Windows-designed 3-D gaming software on a Mac, said Dan Chu, VMware's vice president of emerging products and markets. "There's been a ton of traffic about this on the blogs," said Chu, about discussions by end-users anticipating the beta 2 release. Chu also noted that Fusion will be able to run software programs written in the 64-bit and 32-bit encryption protocols, while Parallels only supports the older 32-bit standard. True, admits Benjamin Rudolph, a Parallels spokesman, but said his company will add the 64-bit standard in its upgrade, due later this year. It will also offer the 3-D graphics capability Fusion, announced Friday. But a key feature of the new Parallels Desktop announced Tuesday is a program it calls Coherence, which runs Windows applications on Mac's OS X as though they were native. When users switch to Coherence mode, Rudolph said, the Windows desktop disappears but Windows applications, such as Word, Outlook or Internet Explorer run on the Mac desktop and their icons appear in the Mac application dock. "Coherence in particular, speaks to the innovation we put out here at Parallels," he said. "That's something nobody really has done before." Fusion also enables merging of Mac and Windows applications, but "it has a different user interface" than Parallels, said Chu. The Mac desktop will be visible and a Windows window will open in a portion of the screen from which the Windows applications can be launched. Although VMware is clearly the industry leader in virtualization, it's largely focused on enterprise virtualization of servers. Parallels focuses on the niche Fusion is going after, that of running Windows on a Mac. "I think we're far ahead of them on virtualizing the Mac," Rudolph said. Parallels' newest version of its Mac product lists for $79.99, although existing users can download the upgrade for free. VMware's currently available version is free, but Chu would not disclose the price at which VMware's beta 2 will sell when it hits the market.
58342
When it comes to exhorting its hordes of hardware vendors to get their drivers right with new versions of its Windows operating system, Microsoft looks less like an iron-fisted ruler and more like a beleaguered parent.
10792
Although Microsoft's Longhorn has been stripped of its unified file system and some other key  technologies, the company said the next Windows release will still be worth the upgrade.
604830
Blames media, not own, confusion WPC Microsoft has delivered a spirited defense of its Windows virtualization roadmap, blaming misreporting not internal disorganization for causing confusion.â¦
478853
Availability, licensing and promises revealed Microsoft's virtualization team has finally stirred as the market gears up for VMworld next week. A bundle of announcements today include a virtulization management software released to manufacturing, solidified pricing and licensing, and promises for future versions.â¦
598852
Microsoft Thursday did something it rarely does. The company released a beta for a long-awaited technology -- in this case its Windows Server 2008 virtualization technology Hyper-V -- ahead of schedule.Hyper-V, formerly code-named &quot;Viridian,&quot; is now available for download from Microsoft&#39;s Web site and is ready to be used with the current x64 beta version of Windows Server 2008, which is also available online. The technology, called a hypervisor, is the underlying virtualization technology for the server release, which is a major update that&#39;s expected to be released on Feb. 27, 2008. A beta of Hyper-V originally was planned to be released on that date as well.Virtualization, or the ability to use virtual machine technology to run multiple OSes on a physical server, is widely seen as a disruptive technology and is becoming increasingly important as companies seek to cut costs and consolidate hardware in their data centers and IT environments. Microsoft had originally intended to release Hyper-V as part of the original release Windows Server 2008, but the technology was delayed and is now scheduled to be generally available 180 days, or about six months, after Windows Server 2008 ships. Hyper-V&#39;s released was delayed earlier this year because Microsoft opted to pull out some originally planned features.Hyper-V takes advantage of virtualization-optimized microprocessors from Intel and&#160;AMD and is meant to help Microsoft compete with virtualization leader VMware, which already has hypervisor technology on the market. Hypervisors allow for cross-platform support so servers can run multiple versions of different OSes -- such as Windows and Linux -- side by side on one piece of hardware.Bill Hilf, general manager of Windows Server at Microsoft, said customers have been asking the company for a built-in virtualization technology that works directly within the Windows Server environment so it&#39;s easy to manage and implement. By design, Hyper-V is set up as what Microsoft calls a &quot;role&quot; within Windows Server 2008, and can be turned on or off as a customer wishes, he said. Roles are a new feature of the forthcoming release of the OS that allow servers to be set up so only the role or roles a customer wants them to play in the IT environment -- such as e-mail server or application server -- will be turned on.Mike Neal, general manager of virtualization at Microsoft, said Hyper-V is meant to make the virtualization market &quot;a two-horse race&quot; between Microsoft and VMware. However, with Hyper-V not scheduled to ship until the second half of next year, the company has a lot of ground to make up to topple VMware from its leadership position. And Microsoft also faces pressure in providing built-in OS virtualization from Linux leader Red Hat, which already has integrated cross-platform virtualization into Red Hat Enterprise Linux.Windows Server 2008 eventually will be available in multiple editions and will be offered with and without Hyper-V. Microsoft also plans to release a product called Microsoft Hyper-V Server specifically as a virtualization host environment in the second half of 2008.
151962
The Vista 'experiment' It's upgrade time for VMware's Lab Manager package.â¦
124435
DRM restrictions may have caused Microsoft's Vista virtualization flip-flop.
184050
Parallels has the edge, our reviewer says, and it's for other reasons than because VMware's Fusion is still in beta.
603729
Blog: The software maker said Tuesday that it is ready with a near-final "release candidate" version of its software, which will find its way on to servers later this year.
485142
At VMware's user conference, server vendors lined up to pledge support for a "thin hypervisor" version of the company's virtualization software that can be built directly into systems.
514913
InfoWorld - Hoping to keep the heat on archrival Microsoft, VMware on Wednesday will give developers a glimpse of an early version of its Virtual SMP product that allows a single virtual machine to work with as many as four processors, which in turn can more effectively drive mission-critical applications.
126323
Microsoft Corp. , seeking to  preserve the dominance of its Windows franchise, launched a new  software application that takes aim at VMware Inc. , the  leader in &quot;virtualization&quot; technology that allows a single  computer server to operate like many machines.
424496
Using its strengths in virtual machine technology, VMWare on Monday unwrapped new beta software for the desktop that allows administrators to more securely deploy and mange work environments outside the corporate network.
97307
The software maker erroneously posts a note on its developer site saying a "release candidate" version of the Vista service pack was being made available. Microsoft does plan one eventually, but it's not imminent.
602949
Microsoft has laid out plans to become a bigger force in the market for virtualization software, stepping up its assault on established leaders such as VMware.The plans announced Monday include the acquisition of a startup company, Calista Technologies, whose graphics technology is designed to improve the end-user experience for people who access their Windows desktop remotely from a server, Microsoft said.The company also loosened some of its licensing terms related to virtualization. Consumers who use the Home Basic and Home Premium editions of Windows Vista will now be able to run those OSes in a virtualized environment, Microsoft said. It also announced new licensing rates for corporate users.Finally, Microsoft extended its partnership with Citrix Systems to make that company&#39;s Xen virtualization software work better with Microsoft&#39;s server and desktop software, it said.Virtualization technologies separate the software on a computer from its underlying hardware, allowing it to be deployed in more flexible ways. Virtualization can allow multiple operating systems to run on one computer, for example, or allow application workloads to be shifted between computers more easily to improve hardware utilization.The technology has been around for decades but was popularized in server environments recently by VMware and others. More recently, Apple introduced virtualization for its Macintosh desktops so that users can run both the Mac OS and Windows on the same machine.Microsoft has not been a significant player in virtualization, but it hopes to change that with its announcements this week. It plans to discuss the changes at its Virtualization Deployment Summit, a two-day event for 300 of its customers and partners that starts Tuesday.It argued that the virtualization market remains open for newer players like itself.&#8220;Very few customers are able to reap the benefits of virtualization today,&#8221; Bob Muglia, senior vice present of Microsoft&#39;s Server and Tools Business, said in a statement. &#8220;We estimate that less than five percent of companies are utilizing virtualization technology because it is simply too cost-prohibitive and complex.&quot;Microsoft&#39;s strategy will be to offer a full range of virtualization products, including desktop, server and management software, and do so at a competitive price, Muglia said.Customers with the Home and Home Premium editions of Vista can now run them as a guest operating system on a virtual machine, the company said. Among other things, that should mean that Apple Mac users who want to run Vista alongside the Mac OS can now do so without having to buy a more expensive version of Windows.For businesses, customers who subscribe to Microsoft&#39;s Software Assurance maintenance program can now get an annual subscription to Microsoft&#39;s desktop virtualization software for $23 per desktop, the company said.Citrix is developing a software tool that will make it easier for customers to transfer virtual machines between Citrix XenServer and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. A test version of the tool will be available in the second quarter, and the final version will be released along with Hyper-V, Microsoft said.The technology from Calista aims to improve the experience for people who access their Windows desktops remotely from a server. It allows people to view multimedia content on a PC or thin client without the media player or software codecs they would normally need installed.Microsoft will add Calista&#39;s graphics technology to future virtualization products, it said. Calista, of San Jose, California, is now a Microsoft subsidiary.