I just read an interesting blog post at http://www.gotitsolutions.com/2006/09/17/netscape-who.html.

Microsoft has decided to make their Virtual PC product free, and as RJB states in his blog, this is the first step to domination. First offer the desktop product free and get everybody used to their product, then jam the server class product down everyone’s throat! RJB layed out the Microsoft attack pretty well.

There was 1 tactic that RJB forgot to mention, requiring everybody to have Virtual PC. As Microsoft fought to drive Netscape out of business they engrained Internet Explorer into as many aspects of Windows as they could. Previously you could uninstall IE and not have a copy on your computer at all. Now, that would cripple your machine.

I predict that it won’t be too long before a lot of Windows applications start requiring you have a copy of Virtual PC installed.

So how will VMware combat this? If they do like Netscape did, they’ll start by making VMware Workstation free. Problem is, Microsoft will start shipping Windows with a copy of Virtual PC already loaded.

The question I ask everybody out there is: Will good technology win, or will Microsoft use their market position to force another application upon us?