Hey, Microsoft! Virtualize this! (and no need to whistle)

Why not goof off for five minutes and read IT Blogwatch, in which Microsoft drops a virtual bomb at LinuxWorld. Not to mention a man who'll never need to whistle to find his car key, because it's implanted in his hand...

Microsoft supporting Linux? But wait, there's more... it's free! Eric Lai reports: "Microsoft Corp. today announced that it will give away its Virtual Server R2 for free, a move seen as reflecting the furiously competitive virtualization software market. This is Microsoft's second price cut for its flagship virtualization product, which can host multiple virtual machines running either Linux or Windows ... Longtime virtualization market leader VMware Inc., which already had a free product called VMware Player, responded in February by making its GSX Server free ... Microsoft is eliminating the Standard edition and making its Enterprise edition available for download at no charge ... the move is partly a tactical reaction to other vendors' moves ... Microsoft entered the virtualization market in 2003 when it bought Virtual PC for the Macintosh and the then-unreleased Virtual Server from Connectix Corp."

» Over at Microsoft Watch, Mary Jo reports "Microsoft announced at LinuxWorld on Monday that it is making the enterprise version of its Virtual Server 2005 R2 product available as a free download ... also plans to offering support for Linux as a Virtual Server guest operating system ... first announced last year plans to do so via Virtual Server 2005 R2 Service Pack 1 ... The Linux virtual machine add-ins are actually available for download now, it turns out."

» Hisham sees it as an assault on VMWare: "In an obvious move to grab some of VMWare's marketshare, Microsoft is giving away Virtual Server 2005 R2 for free ... Microsoft will be releasing tools very soon to make running Linux a little easier under their virtualization software ... a complete 180 degree turn for Microsoft in terms of supporting Linux under Virtual Server. Before this announcement, customers could install Linux under Virtual Server but could not get any support or tools for Linux VMs ... I've been using demo versions of VMWare Workstation off and on since it was first announced many years ago and I still believe it to be a more robust solution than Microsoft's offering ... will this move be enough for Microsoft to successfully hurt VMWare amongst corporate customers?"

» President of VMWare Diane Greene isn't a happy bunny: "I spend a great deal of time thinking about this part of the industry and there are two virtualization competitive struggles going on right now, whose outcome is going to profoundly affect users and vendors. First is the specification of the virtual machine format. Is it going to be a license-free industry standard? If it is not and one company owns the license, they will have a defining control point over virtualization ... The second area is the question of whether virtualization should be tightly integrated into the operating system or instead a separate wholly independent layer."

» Stefano Demiliani: "The first thing that I've observed is the big improvement on supporting Linux-based operative systems, one of the lacks of Virtual PC and the previous version of Virtual Server ... P.S. special thanks to VMWare for the fight on the virtualization market launched in this period... a bit of merit for this free release I think that comes from them."

» Todd Bishop: "Bill Hilf, who heads Microsoft's open-source and Linux lab, is scheduled to give a keynote address about making open-source software work better with ... proprietary programs such as those from Microsoft ...  It won't be Hilf's first LinuxWorld appearance: You may remember him as one of the Microsofties who appeared at the last LinuxWorld in a Stormtrooper outfit, walking out on stage to the 'Imperial March' as part of an effort to poke fun at the company's 'Evil Empire' reputation."

Buffer overflow:

• Dion Hinchcliffe: The State of Web 2.0
• Ken Fisher: The meaning of "Vista Capable": good, not great
• Luis Suarez: Wikis, Blogs and Other Community Tools in the Enterprise - Is Your Business Paying Enough Attention?
• Chris Eaton: XML Storage - Part 1
• Techdirt: Deconstructing Microsoft's Software Piracy Claims
• Charles Aunger: Desktop application virtualisation could quicken fixes, boost reliability and lower desktop support costs.
• Carl Howe:  Claria strives for Web legitimacy, but doesn't have a chance
• Alice Hill: Patent Law Gone Wild: String-Phone Granted a Patent
• Rishi Pande: SSL certificates and poor implementations
• Mike Calligaro: Paging Dr. RAM
• Hinkmond Wong: Google Local for Mobile, better watch their backs
• GrokLaw: More Legal Protection for FOSS Developers - Software Freedom Conservancy Launches
• Tony Asaro: Content Aware Storage – Vendor Lock-in is Re-born
• Alex Scoble: Got hacked? 11 things to do next
• C.J. Kelly: The sophistication of today's hackers is scary
• Jeff Boles:SNW: Best sessions at Monday's SNW
• Bert Latamore: The PDA Guerilla: Support
• Jeff Boles: SNW: Impressions on SNW San Diego 06
• Martin McKeay:  How much inforamtion has the DoJ subpeonaed?
• Robert L. Mitchell:  Server performance? How passe.  The new marketing mantra is performance per watt.
• Jerri Ledford: Still struggling with service levels
• Shark Tank: No Half Measures Here
• Douglas Schweitzer:  DOJ shows identity thefts numbered over 3 million in 2004

And finally... He'll never misplace his car keys (video)

Richi Jennings is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk. Also contributing to today's post: Judi Dey, our very own Antipodean.