Beyond Binary

Emboldened by my success in getting Windows 7 to run on a Mac Mini using Boot Camp, I decided to press my luck. So Wednesday night, I took my Windows 7 beta disk home and set out to load it onto a virtual machine on my iMac.

Having used Parallels successfully in the past to run Vista, I decided to give VMware's Fusion a try--my first experience with the product. Getting up and running was relatively straightforward, a process aided by the fact that VMware lets you enter information such as your password and product key at the outset--handling the rest of the install process by itself.

Although Windows 7 is not officially supported, VMware does have a helpful blog post up on how to install it.

What I found was that Windows 7 loaded on my iMac, even without having a full 1GB of memory to dedicate to the virtual machine. But although I got Windows 7 in body, I felt as if I had lost the spirit of the operating system. The two things I like the most about Windows 7--its zippiness and its graphics--were muted in the virtual experience.

After weeks of enjoying near-instant boot times, it was torture to find myself with the XP experience of having to turn on the machine, then go get a cup of coffee while it finished loading.

In fairness, I might have had a different experience, had I loaded it onto a particularly beefy Mac capable of devoting 1GB or more of memory just to the virtual machine. My iMac has just 1GB of memory total, so I gave half of that over to VMware, a choice that no doubt crimped the speed of both the Mac and the virtual machine.

Even still, I was able to do a lot on my virtual Windows 7 machine. I used it to watch the U-Haul police chase that I had missed. Not only was I able to check in on Facebook, I was able to play the Boggle-like Scramble game to which I am addicted (and the performance was acceptable).

I loaded Firefox on to the machine so that I could use CNET's blogging tool. Despite my fear of writing directly into the tool (not a good idea, even when not running a beta operating system in a virtual machine), it worked just fine.

Overall, I'd say Windows 7 on my iMac falls into the category of "I definitely can, but I'm not sure that I'd really want to." With Windows machines so cheap, I'm not sure that one isn't better off getting a Netbook and having it sit next to their Mac, if they really need to run a Windows app or two.

For more of my thoughts on Windows 7, check out the Editors' Office Hours segment I did earlier this week. I've included the video above.

Images: A virtual look at Windows 7

One of the topics I didn't get a chance to write about during last night's Churchill Club speech was Steve Ballmer's comments on virtualization.

Here's a ZDNet video with Ballmer talking about Microsoft's "opportunity to democratize virtualization."

For those who want to skip to the money quote, here it is:

"If you want virtualization on 80 percent of servers instead of 5 percent of servers, you better not charge three times as much as the price of the server for the virtualization," Ballmer said. "For certain high-end applications, the approach that VMware has used is a perfectly good approach, but it's not an approach that is going to lead to virtualization of a high percentage of servers."

ZDNet posted other videos as well, including Ballmer on the economy and on competition with Google.

One of the nice advantages of server virtualization is the ability to run Linux and Windows on the same server. One of the headaches, though, is getting help when something goes wrong.

Microsoft and Novell on Thursday said they are going to try to make things a little easier. The pair announced that they will jointly support a virtualization scenario in which Suse Linux is running as a guest operating system under Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization.

The companies said partners such as Dell will test the setup at the joint lab the two companies have in Cambridge, Mass. It's the latest fruit of a nearly 2-year-old alliance between the two companies.

"The collaboration between Microsoft and Novell has been built by our desire to meet our customers' and partners' IT needs, and to deliver solutions that support customers' mixed-source environments," Microsoft Vice President Bob Kelly said in a statement. "For customers standardizing on Microsoft's hypervisor who also have a mixed-source IT environment, this virtualization solution gives that choice. For channel partners who need a cross-platform hypervisor offering, our work with Novell gives them an easy starting point."

Microsoft said on Monday that it now plans to offer its server virtualization product for free.

Ahead of a virtualization event in Redmond, Wash., Microsoft said that its Hyper-V Server 2008 will be released within 30 days and be available at no cost via the Web. The software maker had planned to charge $28 for the product.

Also on Monday, Microsoft plans to show off a live migration feature that will be part of the next version of its Hyper-V virtualization technology. Live migration allows companies to move a running virtual machine from one server to another.

The feature will be part of Windows Server R2, Microsoft said Monday. The software maker had originally intended to make Live Migration part of the first Hyper-V product, but pulled the feature in order to try to make its shipping deadline.

Microsoft also said that major computer makers note that nearly all of their customers who order Windows Server 2008-based systems are opting to include Hyper-V. Microsoft finalized the Hyper-V code back in June.

Gearing up for a big virtualization event next week, Microsoft on Wednesday announced another round of changes to its lineup of virtualization policies and products.

Among a new series of changes being rolled out is the ability for businesses to allow their corporate PC image to be run in a virtual machine on PCs owned by employees or contractors.

To pave the way for this, Microsoft announced that either option is now covered under an existing licensing program that costs $110 per PC per year. Workers with desktop PCs that only need occasional remote access to their work PC image can do so under a new license that costs $23 extra per PC per year, provided the computer in question is also part of Microsoft's Software Assurance program.

These changes, according to Microsoft's Scott Woodgate, are being made not so much because lots of businesses are doing these things today, but rather to try to make sure that it is not Microsoft's licensing policies that are stifling businesses' creativity.

In another licensing shift, Microsoft will enable hosters to stream versions of a third-party software using its technology. Of course, businesses will still need to make sure the third-party software in question can be properly licensed in that way.

Microsoft also announced a new version of its SoftGrid technology, now known as App-V (short for application virtualization). Although hardware virtualization, which moves computing tasks from one server to another, gets most attention, Woodgate said that application virtualization is poised to be big on the desktop.

"Application virtualization for us is as important on the desktop as hardware virtualization is on the server," Woodgate said.

Separately, VMware noted on Wednesday that its VMware ESX hypervisor was certified under the recently announced Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program, which means that Microsoft will now support software running inside a VMware virtual machine as it would if the program was running outside a hypervisor. Previously, Microsoft had typically required that any problem a customer encountered be reproduced outside a hypervisor in order to get support--a major thorn in the side of customers that rely heavily on virtualization.

Microsoft on Tuesday announced a change in its licensing policy to make it easier for businesses that want the ability to shift server software that is running in a virtual machine from one physical machine to another.

The licensing shift, which had been expected, lifts a cap that had limited the ability to switch software from one physical machine to another within a server farm. Under the prior rules, such shifts could me made only once every 90 days. That's a problem because software from VMware and others aims to allow such transfers to be made dynamically in response to changing demand.

"Businesses are taking steps to make their IT operations more dynamic and are delving into virtualization as a cornerstone strategy," Microsoft Senior Director Zane Adam said in a statement. "Microsoft recognizes this and is innovating its licensing policies, product support, and a wide range of IT solutions to help customers get virtual now."

The change applies to 41 server titles, Microsoft said, including the enterprise version of SQL Server 2008, the standard and enterprise versions of Exchange Server 2007, as well as the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft System Center products.

Microsoft also plans to offer better support for businesses that are running its software inside other companies' virtualization engines. Under the changes, Microsoft will support its software running inside virtual machines from VMware, Cisco Systems, Citrix, Novell, Sun Microsystems, and Virtual Iron as if it were being run in nonvirtual environments.

In the past, many customers with problems running Microsoft software in VMware, for example, had to reproduce the problem outside of VMware in order to get technical support from Microsoft.

For some time now, Microsoft has been trying to shift its pricing policies to reflect a new world in which server software often runs inside virtual machines.

Microsoft is going to have more to say on the virtualization front at a September 8 event in the Seattle area.

In its continuing effort to adjust to the realities of virtualization, Microsoft plans on Tuesday to announce new licensing and support policies to address how software can be used across multiple virtual and physical machines.

The software maker confirmed the planned move to CNET News, but declined to go into details ahead of the Tuesday announcement. However, Network World speculated that the company may ease up on a licensing requirement that ties software in a virtual machine to running on a particular server.

That poses a challenge in a world in which virtualization software, such as that from VMware, allows companies to seamlessly move virtual machines from one physical server to another, based on demand needs.

Although it has had challenges of its own keeping pace with changes in the way server software is run, Microsoft has led the way in some new frontiers of licensing, such as how to deal with multicore processors.

Diane Greene

(Credit: CNET)

VMware announced on Tuesday the abrupt departure of founder and CEO Diane Greene, replacing her with former Microsoft executive Paul Maritz.

The virtualization software also warned that full-year revenue will be "modestly below the previous guidance of 50 percent growth over 2007." The company did not update its guidance for the just-ended quarter, saying it will report results as scheduled on July 22.

VMware shares plummeted on the news, changing hands recently at $39.50, down $13.69 or more than 25 percent.

The company's revenue warning is the second recent financial hiccup for VMware, which also reported disappointing earnings in January.

Paul Maritz

(Credit: EMC)

Maritz, who spent 14 years at Microsoft, had been at former VMware parent EMC since February, when the storage giant bought Maritz's start-up, Pi.

Although VMWare issued a nice statement praising Greene for her contributions, the company made it clear that the decision for Greene to leave was made by the board.

"VMware's Board of Directors announced today that it has made a change in the leadership of the company with the departure of Diane Greene as president and CEO," the company said.

The move comes as VMware faces stepped-up competition in the virtualization field it has dominated, including from Maritz's former employer, Microsoft.

VMware's fortunes have shifted drastically since the company launched a wildly successful IPO last summer. The company's stock rose from an initial price of $29 per share to a high of $55.50 in its first day of trading.

EMC purchased VMware for approximately $635 million in 2003.

In Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner is wary of building a baseball diamond on his farm, which is already near foreclosure. But a voice tells him, "If you build it, they will come."

Microsoft has the same vision for its virtualization technology. Several years in the making, Microsoft's Hyper-V officially entered on Thursday a field dominated by VMware and other competitors, including the open-source Xen product.

Microsoft Corporate Vice President Bill Laing told me that he understands his company faces an uphill battle in trying to win over customers that have been using VMware and Xen, in some cases for many years.

"I think we'll do best initially in 'green field' opportunities," Laing said. "Small business, I think, is a completely green field. In the enterprise, where customers haven't deployed (another virtualization technology), I think we'll do well."

Over time, Laing said he wants Microsoft find its way into data centers that already use VMware.

"I think it will take longer to rip and replace, but that's certainly our ambition," Laing said.

As expected, Microsoft announced on Thursday that it has finished work on Hyper-V. For now, Microsoft is making Hyper-V available for download via its Web site, though it plans on July 8 to make it an option via Windows Update. By releasing it now, the company is following through on its pledge to ship the virtualization hypervisor within 180 days of the release of Windows Server 2008.