At the LinuxWorld conference this week, Microsoft launched 2 bombshells. Firstly Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 is now free! Before the announcment, MVS was selling at around $199. The other bombshell was that MVS now supports Linux, so you can now virtually host a linux installation on your Windows Desktop.
These two announcements does show that Microsoft aren’t the devil that they are made out to be. In terms of the VS market, they really had no alternative but to offer MVS for free, as the market leader, VMWare has always been free.
The fact that MVS supports an open-source solution, Linux, shows that Microsoft is not “all” about making money. Microsoft is the market leader in terms of OS choice, but giving people the freedom to choose, puts them in an even stronger position. PR is also an important part of the decision, I think. I wonder how many people will now run their Linux mailserver inside a WVS on their companies network? hehe…
Currently Microsoft will offer technical support for two distributions of Linux, namely Novell SUSE and RedHat.
A definite thumbs-up in my books. Well done Microsoft.
More info on the news:
- vnunet.com – Shock as Microsoft supports Linux
- News.com – Microsoft to ‘host’ Linux virtually
hectic, didn’t know bout this blog
cool stuff!
vmware wasn’t always free btw…
Wasn’t there a free version and an enterprise edition that you had to buy? I always assumed they had a free version. My bad.