VMware: Windows is toast

If you want to know which side of the Linux versus Windows world VMware is on, just ask Paul Harapin, managing director for Australia and New Zealand at VMware, who has sounded the death knell for Windows. His take? That virtual machines will shortly make Windows obsolete:

What that means is they don't need you to buy a large commercial operating system from Microsoft or anybody else....A product we have, Fusion, allows you to run all of your Windows or open source software on your Macintosh as if it was built for the Mac and you can't tell any difference in the way it runs.

We see that as the first step to seeing hypervisor-based desktop hardware where you buy your hardware and you buy your applications which just happen to be virtual appliances....

The operating system becomes just a very thin [Linux-based] layer necessary to run and optimise the application and it's the hypervisor layer that actually runs the underlying infrastructure all the interactions. Generally, organizations will take a Linux base and they'll cut it to see what they want. Then they'll bundle and build an appliance and ship that out.

Steven J. Vaughan Nichols thinks this is a strong hint at VMware's future as an appliance vendor, and not merely as a virtualization company. VMware needs to do this as open-source virtualization technologies cut into its business.

Regardless, it makes for a highly interesting operating system market - both desktop and server - for the decade to come.

Discovered through Linux Today. Thanks, Brian!

[jrepenning]

Whaaaa?? But you still need Windows running inside the virtualizer, if the app is built for Windows.

[Pointless8086]

The type of Virtualization being discussed is not OS virtualization in the way most people commonly understand it. It is application virtualization. More like how a JavaVM works... or how Wine allows you to run windows applications without installing or owning windows.

Thinstall, a product recently purchased by VMware, virtualizes just above the OS level, virtualizing the file system and registry to create apps which are "installable" on many machines without conflicting with other files and registry entries of the same names. This is likely the start of a long road towards their ultimate goal of applications running on a truely virtual appliance.

I agree the article could use more details that explain this more. But a little research on your own goes a long way.

BTW, Microsoft also has plans to explore application virtualization.

[covolor]

Hypervisor isn't a VMWare product first off, its been around for quite some time to run on mainframes. Secondly, you still have to buy a copy of windows and the relevant applications. So how is this going to put the giant to bed? This was a horrible article and VMWare is misleading you. You still have to own a copy of Windows to run it in a VM environment. Just for the record, I have a Mac and a PC (work). However, I cannot just go on by and not say something. Be up front with the readers so they know what they are getting into before they buy VM Fusion (which is a good product). Lastly, how is this going to changing the OS market? You are still going to need a license from the Vendor to run its OS in a VM. Clue me in on this one please as well as your readers that are going to eat this up.

[Michichael]

What he's referring to is that you will no longer need Windows to run Windows based appliances. Or Mac to run Mac based - the framework that the program calls on can be virtualized. So soon you won't have applications designed for an OS, just applications, and you use the appropriate virtual environment to use them.

[joetesta70]

Sounds like the Java argument all over again. I like virtualization but I need a lot more momory and there are always issues (networking, bluetooth, etc) that seem to trip things up. I'm running VMWare with Ubuntu on my Vista64 laptop BTW.

[WillyWiggler]

Dude... I have no freakin' idea what you're talking about. Any program built on the windows APIs will still need windows to operate. You can run Windows on a VM, but you still need to buy Windows. Moreover, most ISVs don't have the time/resources to put together some minimalistic Linux distro so they can run their app on a VM. Smart ISVs are focused on making their app solve customer problems, not re-inventing the OS, or fighting the "good fight".

Death of windows? Yeah, right...

Your anti-microsoft bias makes you look like such a complete and total tool! Find a real job and add some real value to the world, instead of regurgitating bravado, hyperbole, and half-baked conclusions from clueless marketing putzes.

I have no idea why you are linked on C-Net.

[edivaldoapereira]

Saying that "any program built on the windows APIs still need windows to operate" and "you still need to by Windows" just shows you don't know a lot of things, like anyone with strong microsoft bias... I run EVERY windows application I need on Wine, and I know there are other, perhaps better, solutions; moreover, I've already switched a lot of Windows applications I had to use in the past to Linux native and free applications (MS Office and development tools, never more!); some o them are not yet that good, my they fit my needs. The point is, I'm almost "Microsoft free".