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MS Virtual PC is now free

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mouser:
this is not a commentary on monopoly, but it's important to note that the vmware equivelant of virtualpc (vmware workstation) has never been free, its $200.

Josh:
perhaps this would be good time for them to do so, i mean, wouldnt you think they make more on their server products anyways? for companies looking to deploy multiple installations on a single machine?

Carol Haynes:
I was more thinking of VPC being bundled with Vista !!

This is precisely waht has caused them hassles with monopoly claims because of Intenet Explorer and Windows Media Player being distributed with the OS. There have been monopoly cases now in the US and Europe over these and everytime MS have lost the case. You'd think there must be at least one person with a brain there that can see the problems looming ahead?

Actually I think they have got a brain on this - the fines are less than the potential benefits of locking people into MS software (by default) and then being able to monopolise and rewrite standards that affect all platforms.

Josh:
I honestly dont see it as a big possibility of monopoly abuse. I mean, vmware makes most of their money from the GSX/ESX. As long as MS doesnt make VPC locked into the OS, i.e. you can remove it, I dont forsee a problem. Anyways, from the following quote

Virtual PC Express is limited to only 1 single Virtual PC Image and supports Windows 9x, NT, 2000, XP, MS-DOS, and OS 2. Its designed to give Enterprise users the ability to use a earlier version of Windows for application compatibility if needed for applications that cannot be made to work on Windows Vista. Essentially it gives Enterprises the ability to upgrade and still be able to use their older software. Software Assurance customers get the right through licensing to run two operating systems - Vista and the "Guest" OS. Virtual PC will also offer 64-bit support as well.-msfn.org
--- End quote ---

Looks like vmware still has the edge in that you can create MULTIPLE machines in vmware workstation while MS limits you to 1 installation and only of a MS os or compatible (OS2).

mwb1100:
Note that Virtual PC Express is different from Virtual PC - it's a cut down version of VPC that MS announced (but have not yet released) as an add-on for Vista.  I suspect that now that Virtual PC is free (and VPC 2007) that Virtual PC Express will probably disappear as a Vista add-on feature.

I hope VMware can continue to make a go of it - they have some great technology.  Whether MS is doing anything illegal or wrong, I have my own not-so-strong opinons. It's clear that they certainly have the capacity to make life very, very difficult for anyone they'd like to see out of the way, and there are times I wish the field were a bit more level.  But, I do like the free software (until MS decides there's no more competition, so stops development themselves, as was the case for many years with IE 6 until Firefox came along and lit a fire under them).

Anyway, here's a catalog of free virtual machine software:

     - MS Virtual Server Enterprise: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/software/privacy.mspx
     - MS Virtual PC: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6d58729d-dfa8-40bf-afaf-20bcb7f01cd1&displaylang=en


     - VMware Player (this is really not equivalent to VMware Workstation, but nice for deploying pre-configured VMs): http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
     - VMware Server (basically the next version of GSX Server): http://www.vmware.com/products/server/

     - Xen (open source).  I think this is currently for Linux only (as host and VM guest), but with new CPU virtualization support they will be able to host Windows (or any OS) as a guest: http://www.xensource.com/
     - QEMU (mostly open source):  http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/

I think that most users will find MS Virtual PC to be the most straightforward to install and use.

I happen to use VMware Workstation because I already have it (bought it quite a while ago).  It has some very nice features above VPC (for me, snapshots and 'teams') which are very usedful for development and testing, but unless you know you need those features VPC is pretty much just as good.

Interestingly, while digging up the URLs for this post, I noticed that VMware Server just went from Beta to GA Release acouple days ago...  Now I'm off for another download.

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