VMWare Server Beta is released

As you should know by now VMWare released the free VMWare Player not long ago, which is basically a feature limited version of VMWare Workstation. They have now released their VMWare Server (currently in beta) for free, which is expected to lose it’s beta status sometime Q2 2006. VMWare Server is positioned as a “little brother” to VMWare ESX and is to replace the GSX server.

You are required to register to download VMWare Server, and at the moment the web site is getting hammered so it’s pretty slow. It does seem that BugMeNot has registration details already for those who doesn’t feel like giving your email address. So far I haven’t been able to obtain a copy of the software so I can’t provide feedback on how’s it running. I’ll return to this topic at a later stage when I’ve actually been able to get hold of a copy and test it out.

Instead of providing a product review I will offer my thoughts on what is happening in the virtualization market. I believe that what we are witnessing is a commoditization of the virtualization market, where the next generation of enterprise Linux distributions will include Xen virtualization technology and I wouldn’t be surprised if the high-end Windows Vista servers would include Virtual PC. SWsoft has announced earlier that they will release an free open source version of Virtuozzo called OpenVZ.

All this points to a future where virtualization is everywhere, where it is expected to be a part of the operating environment and no-one is really prepared to pay a premium for it. Why choose which OS you want to run, when you can run them all at the same time?

Personally I am happy with the turn of events, as I need to run a lot of systems during my research and development and all this free virtualization software makes it a little bit cheaper (which is important for me, as I am funding my research myself).