If you don’t know who Darl McBride is, then you’ve ignored the SCO vs. IBM/Linux case. As well as the Novell vs. SCO case, and the RedHat vs. SCO case.

In a nutshell, SCO became famous for releasing the first version of Unix that would run in Intel hardware. Since Intel hardware was cheaper than HP-UX or Sparc systems, they made a lot of money. Now with Linux on the scene, the company, (a former Linux distro them selves) found them selves loosing money.

First they were first bought by Caldera Linux, but then later changed their name back to SCO. Try as they might they were loosing money. Their answer? Bring in Darl McBride. What happened next was SCO started working on their SCO OpenServer product after little to no development for years. Then they sue IBM saying that IBM stole UNIX code and used it in Linux.

Interesting point here. The ownership of the UNIX code is still in question. Novell bought it from ATT, and later sold it to SCO. Problem is, who owns what is up in the air. SCO says they own it all, and Novell says they retained some of the rights.

Many people think that suing IBM was an aggressive way of getting bought out. Face it, SCO stock was in the dump. IBM could have just swallowed them up. Instead they decided to fight. During the course of the lawsuit SCO failed time and again to produce evidence which they claimed they already had.

A fun side note. At the start of all this, SCO threatened to sue anyone using Linux for copyright infringement. First they hit Autozone. Autozone asked the judge to hold the case until the SCO vs IBM case was finished, as this case would prove if there was any copyright infringement. The judge agreed, and SCO had to wait. So they went after Dahlmer-Chrysler next. Chrysler was ready to fight. They successfully fought SCO and got the judge to throw out the case.

These losses, as well as their mounting legal debt caused the stock price to plummet.

Why bring up all this? Well, aside form my long ties to the Open Source commmunity, and a love of Linux, there was a cartoon I just saw on eweek. Spencer F. Katt usually gives me a good laugh or two.

Enjoy.

Want more on the SCO lawsuits?

http://www.groklaw.net/

On July 12th Microsoft released an announcement regarding the licensing of their Windows 2003 Datacenter Edition.

“Unlimited virtualization rights: Starting October 1, 2006, new servers licensed with Windows Server Datacenter Edition (and previous licenses with new version rights) will have license rights to run an unlimited number of virtualized Windows Server instances. By simply licensing the server’s processors with Windows Server Datacenter Edition, customers will be able to run Windows Server Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, Datacenter Edition or a mix of the three editions without having to track the number of virtual machines or pay for additional Windows Server licenses.”

This is great news for customers who have started virtualizing their datacenters. Now only will customers be able to save on hardware, but also save money on Windows Licensing costs.

Here is a great article on the linuxworld.com website.

Apparently VMware has been pretty vocal about the Xensource - Microsoft Partnership. In the article they accuse the deal of lop-sided in favor of the Windows Operating System. They also accuse Xensource of betraying their open source roots.

A quick look at the Xensource websites shows a pretty impressive list of investors that are highly interested in making a profit and seeing a return on their investment. So what’s a company to do? Partner with the 500 lb gorilla that is Microsoft?

I have to wonder, given Microsoft’s long standing opposition to the open-source movement, how Xensource will be able to keep Microsoft happy and at the same time stay true to their “values“.

http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php/id;1690892892;fp;2;fpid;1

For years Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates has trashed both Linux and the GPL (1), calling them cancer-like, un-american, and warned that the GPL will eliminate your choice to use closed-source software. (2) Microsoft has long tried to sell the idea the open-source software is a plague that will infect your company like a virus, and eat away at the American economy. (3) So why now look to work more closely with the open source community (4), produce a lengthy statement about this collaboration (5), and even go so far as to develop an “Shared-Source Initative“. Maybe after all the FUD, and Microsoft’s inability to help SCO destroy Linux (6), there really is something to be said for the the GPL / Open Source community.

Let’s face it, this isn’t the first time ol’ Bill’s been wrong. Rememeber a little company called Netscape? They led the Internet Browser market until Microsoft, already behind on the game, decided that the Internet wasn’t just a phase and that it was time to get in the browser market. (7) Free copies of Internet Explorer and a big E on every desktop told people that IE WAS the internet. The nice thing about being Bill Gates is that even if you are horribly wrong, you own such a market share you can squeeze out the competition.

So considering Xensource’s recent announcement to partner with Microsoft I’m left asking myself: Is Xensource trying to stay in business by aligning themselves with a company who has proven to kill competition? Or has Xensource been forced to find so many investors that strategic control been taken away form those who hold it most dear?

I also have to wonder what Microsoft is looking to gain from this. VMware is currently lightyears ahead in terms of stability and features with their Virtual Infrastructure 3 product. I’m pretty sure that this partnership just one of many aimed at destroying the “competition”?

If you’re thinking “No way! Microsoft is a kinder corporation these days! Those days are long over.” Then you haven’t been watching what’s happening in Massachusetts. State CIO Peter Quinn tried to move the state from the proprietary Microsoft document formats (.xls, .doc, .ppt, etc..), and move them into the Open Source Document Format (ODF) (8). This new format would allow the various state agencies to have a larger choice of “office” applications. The problem, Microsoft likes having a monopoly. They like knowing that you need to use their software to properly format their documents saved in their file format.

So how is Microsoft handling this? When your Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, you have deep pockets. You hire a lobbist to convince someone of power that they should have “concerns” over this. (9)

In very disappointed in Xensources decision to partner with Microsoft. I like having the freedom to choose whether I want to use VMware, Xen, Virtuozzo, or yes, even Miscrosoft Virtual Server. As a consumer, I like choices. I like the idea of multiple companies working hard to develop better products. Too bad Microsoft doesn’t feel that way.

1. http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

2. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/20/gpl_pacman_will_eat_your/

3. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/04/22/gates_gpl_will_eat_your/

4. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/179256_msftopen25.html

5. http://www.microsoft.com/resources/sharedsource/Articles/MicrosoftandOpenSource.mspx

6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO-Linux_controversies

7. http://www.searls.com/m+n.html

8. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1906388,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000616

9. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1877793,00.asp

There is a great free seminar happening that is going to discuss leveraging technologies like VMware for Disaster Recovery.

Click here to register:

http://www.mti.com/seminar/edr/eweek/

On July 18th Xensource announced a partnership with Microsoft to work on “provide interoperability between Xen-enabled Linux and the new Microsoft® Windows® hypervisor technology-based Windows Server® virtualization”. The press release goes on to say “With the resulting technology, the next version of Windows Server, code-named “Longhorn,” will provide customers with a flexible and powerful virtualization solution across their hardware infrastructure and operating system environments for cost-saving consolidation of Windows, Linux and Xen-enabled Linux distributions”.

This announcement has me seriously bugged on a number of levels.

I’ve had a couple of long hot days during this heat wave we’ve been having here in California, and am pretty drained. But beleive me, you’ll be seeing a lot of posts regarding this.

You can read the Xensource announcement here:

http://www.xensource.com/news/pr071706.html

There is also an article from eweek on this.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1990366,00.asp

Check out this article on eweek.

It’s an interesting article about 2 of VMware’s competitors. Give it a read and share your thoughts with me.

Thinking back to a previously mentioned article by Oliver Rist he stated:

“If you’re running a pile of servers, connected together to form a virtual hosting landscape, then that hardware must be updated, modified, and maintained over time. To keep virtual machines from going down during that time, Virtual Server now does machine migration from one host to the next at less than 10 seconds per 128MB (assuming a 1GbE iSCSI interconnect medium).”

Does this mean that MS is officially developing a VMotion competitor?

A quick search on the Microsoft website turned up nothing. Even the webpage dedicated to the Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager doesn’t mention it. Honestly, that page doesn’t say much of anything.

However Microsoft has taken note of how large the virtualization market has become, and is still becoming. Last May they released their virtualization roadmap, which included the stated intent to acquire Softricity which they completed July 17th.

VMware’s position has been that they are so far ahead technology wise, that it will take Microsoft years to catch up. But do they really? Are they really that far ahead that MS can’t catch up?

With the release of VMware VI 3 they have released the new documentation. If can be found here at:

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vi_pubs.html

I haven’t read all of the documents, but the 2.5 versions were always well written. I’m gonna assume that the new ones are also.

Last week on July 12th VMware finally released their VMware Server product. This product, formerly know as GSX, has been available in a beta version for some time know.

This is an exciting release! VMware Server is VMware’s competition to the Microsoft Virtual Server. VMware Server and Microsoft Virtual Server are both considered hosted applications. This is different from VMware’s ESX server which is considered a “bare metal” installation.

What this means it that VMware Server and MS Virtual Server are applications that install on top of an operating system. VMware ESX installs directly on the hardware and acts as a combined operating system / application.

This is a simple VMware Server architecural diagram. This diagram works to illistrate the basic archiecture of both VMware Server and MS Virtaul Server. Notice, that the virtualization application (in this case VMware Server) sits on top of a Windows or Linux Operating System. Everytime one of those virtual machines on top need access to resources, it must resquest them from the the application which inturn must request them from the operating system. That operating system is not specifically optimized to handle this type of work load. As a result, VMware Server or MS Virtual Server must compete with the other applications that are running on this machine. (You should note that whereas VMware Server runs on either Windows or Linux, MS Virtual Server only runs on Windows.)

Compare the previous image with ESX’s architecure. Notice that there is no “Operating System” layer. That’s because ESX is the operating system and application in one. The VMkernel manages all resourses and is optimized to do nothing but virtualize hardware. This means that resourse are more readily available to the virtual machines being hosted.

So why run a hosted application like VMware Server? Well, for a start it’s free (as long as you don’t require support). This makes it easier for testing and developing applications. It’s also good for lower end applications, or admins to get their feet wet with the whole concept of virtualization. Download it and give it a try!

You can read the official announcement here.

I’ll make sure to do a VMware Server Vs. MS Virtual Server post soon!