"Intel and VMware announced today that Intel Capital is taking a USD 218.5 million stake in virtualization company VMWare. Intel will purchase 9.5 million Class A shares at USD 23 per share, which, at the completion of VMware's forthcoming IPO, will give Intel about a 2.5 percent stake in the company. Because VMware's stock is split between Class A shares, which have less voting power, and Class B shares, Intel won't control that many votes in the company, but they will get a board seat."
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Member since:2007-04-03
The article seems to be forgetting VMware ESX, I don't think Microsoft will be able to compete for the same level that ESX provides for a while yet.
ESX runs VMware's own kernel and hypervisor so instead of having virtualization logic *added* to the kernel, the kernel is designed for virtualization, leading to better performance.
Microsoft may be able to convince some shops to switch to their own built in virtualization tool for some testing but I wouldn't expect them to start taking over the market. Also you have to consider what operating systems will be supported for running in the virtualized environment, if non-Windows guests couldn't perform well then that could be a show stopper for some.
Member since:2005-07-21
When it comes to virtualization, the money is not in the host runtime - both MS and VMWare give it away for free - but in the managability software that surrounds it (there are strategic aspects too). Microsoft makes the System Center product line, which has virtualization concepts built deep into it and correspondingly they offer a runtime.
Microsoft definitely desires that Windows be your virtualization host (for any and all workloads), and will build good guest-level support for alternative OSes to support that goal. Their arrangement with Xen speaks to that.
Edited 2007-07-09 23:24
Member since:2006-07-26
Although I can understand MS wanting to get on board the virtualisation gravy train, mainly due to the fact that you have several virtualisation technologies out of the box on any Linux distro (not to mention built into the kernel), trying to kill off a former 'partner' by offering a free, Enterprise level alternative integrated into it's consumer desktop offering just seems like more abuse of it's virtual monopoly.
This time around it is going to be hard to cry monopoly like before with Internet Explorer being deeply integrated into the OS since Linux has virtualization right in it's kernel too.
Virtualization makes sense in the kernel, this is something that Microsoft should do.
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently."In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies."The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Member since:
2006-12-28
Looks like MS is out to take over another 'partner's' market. From the article -
Although I can understand MS wanting to get on board the virtualisation gravy train, mainly due to the fact that you have several virtualisation technologies out of the box on any Linux distro (not to mention built into the kernel), trying to kill off a former 'partner' by offering a free, Enterprise level alternative integrated into it's consumer desktop offering just seems like more abuse of it's virtual monopoly.
Hopefully we can have several open source implementations to offset MS if they're offering turns out to be as bad as VirtualPC currently is. ;-P
Edit: Added some bits for clarity.
Edited 2007-07-09 22:50 UTC