Xen and Gone?

A random blogger recently made a rather stunning prediction: That Xen is as good as dead. His logic? Citrix, which bought Xen, is so wedded to Microsoft that it will kill Xen in favor of Hyper-V.

I interviewed Citrix chief Mark Templeton for the premiere issue of Virtualization Review magazine (you can check out the article here). The interview came just as Microsoft and Citrix were announcing a multiyear cooperation agreement over virtualization. The deal calls for both companies to support each others' hypervisors, Hyper-V and Xen, and work on interoperability.

I asked Templeton how he can support Microsoft's Hyper-V and still give his full weight to Xen. It's a delicate balancing act, but Templeton explained that he would leave it up to customers. He also made it clear that he wouldn't be at all shy about pushing Hyper-V.

That is the kind of talk that got Brian Madden, the blogger, speculating that Xen was ultimately dead.

Virtualization Review Editor Keith Ward took on the issue in his own blog.

My take? Citrix and Microsoft have had complementary and competitive products in the thin client space for years. And Xen, more than anything, is an open source tool that helps Citrix build relationships with the likes of Sun, IBM and Novell. I don't think it's going anywhere.

Posted by Doug Barney on July 10, 20080 comments


Office for Rent

We've been talking a lot about Microsoft's challenges in Web services. This is an area we explore in our recent Redmond magazine cover story where we conclude that on the enterprise side, Microsoft has done a fine job turning server-bound tools like Exchange into software services. We saw less progress on the consumer side -- the space where Google happily resides.

Part of Microsoft's strategy is called Software Plus Services. The idea is to take regular old hard drive applications and enhance them with a few Web goodies. This is the exact approach taken by Equipt, formerly called Project Albany.

Aimed largely at consumers, customers get a license to a low-end version of Office for three machines and Web-based security including antivirus through OneCare. Microsoft is also tossing in a bunch of Office Live services which, as far as I can tell, are already free.

Posted by Doug Barney on July 09, 20080 comments


Mailbag: Just Say 'No' to Yahoo

With Steve Ballmer's continued push to overthrow the Yahoo board, Doug asked readers yesterday whether buying Yahoo is even a good idea. Here's what some of you had to say:

Should Ballmer buy Yahoo? Simple answer: NO!
-Anonymous

This makes no sense at all. You have an open source culture in one company and one of the most proprietary cultures in another. Also, the DOJ should can this deal as being bad for consumers -- one less chat system out there. For as bad as "Yahell" is claimed to be, it has features no one else has; it just doesn't leverage them via advertising very well. Then you also have overlap in the online ad industry.

This should not be allowed -- period.
-Bruce

When I bought my 100 shares of Yahoo five or six years ago and saw it split two for one a year or so later, I thought I had boarded the gravy train. I've seen nothing since. So what have I got to look forward to? Maybe it would be nice to exchange my Yahoo for MS. I'd be willing if they offered -- just to have something different now.
-Steve

And readers share their thoughts on what would make IE 8 more secure than its predecessors:

IE 8 would be several LARGE steps in the right direction if all support for iFrames, ActiveX controls and Java were withdrawn, and if JavaScripts were allowed only for browser-related actions rather than for system activity. Certainly, those are my default Internet settings in IE 6, which I override only for Internet banking and for editing my GooglePages.
-Fred

IE 8 intregration? No! I really think that anything that has the potential for compromising the system should not be tightly integrated into the OS, EVER. Browsers are the attack point of choice these days, so why would you want something you know is going to be a serious security problem to be tightly integrated with your OS?

The only reason -- and one of the reasons Microsoft has overpowered the competition -- is the features and ease of use to be gained by that integration. Microsoft's previous approach was to focus on features and ease of use even if it meant that security had to be compromised, and look where that got it. It is really exciting when a design flaw in IE allows another program, e.g., Safari, to compromise your system and open it up to attack...NOT!
-Anonymous

I gave up on Internet Explorer during the IE 6 era, when Firefox came along. To get me to go back to IE for anything other than Windows Update, it would have to be as easy to use as Firefox is. I really doubt that Microsoft can make anything that easy anymore. Vista was enough for me to realize that it has really lost sight of what the users are trying to do. Most of my home computing now is done through Linux and I am really now looking at a Mac.

Just for the record, I am one of the legion of "Mort" programmers who have worked with Microsoft products for years. Still, I find Office 7 a major pain to work with and Vista a disaster. Good luck, MS. You'll need it.
-Angus

We have applications that run fine in IE 6 but break under IE 7. I shudder to think what additional problems we might run into under IE 8.
-Thomas

Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on July 09, 20080 comments


Going, Going, Greene

Diane Greene, whose name is synonymous with VMware, is out of a job, replaced by Microsoft vet Peter Maritz.

VMware founder Greene has been a good friend of the Redmond Media Group. Editor Ed Scannell interviewed Greene twice in recent months, once for a cover story in Redmond magazine and again for a cover story in Virtualization Review.

VMware is riding high, but has some huge challenges. Its biggest issue: pricing. Right now, VMware is more full-featured than Hyper-V, but also far more expensive.

The Rhodesian-born Maritz is a bit of an inside pick. His cloud computing company, Pi Corp., was recently acquired by VMware owner EMC, and it was Joe Tucci, EMC chief and VMware chairman of the board, who made the announcement of Greene's departure (er, dismissal).

I interacted a fair amount with Maritz during his 14 years at Microsoft. He always came across as intensely bright and intensely competitive. The tough-as-nails Maritz also got into hot water during the antitrust prosecution of Microsoft after reportedly threatening to "cut off Netscape's air supply," something Microsoft effectively did.

Now Maritz is on the other side, defending VMware against Hyper-V which is essentially bundled with an OS. Will Microsoft cut off Maritz's air supply? Will there be a détente? Will Microsoft buy VMware? Your answers welcome at [email protected].

Our best wishes go out to Diane who did an amazing job and was always kind to our group of magazines.

Posted by Doug Barney on July 09, 20080 comments


Volume Licensing Tweaked

Microsoft last week added a new element to its already sprawling array of licensing options. Select Plus Volume Licensing is a new wrinkle for the Select program.

The key features? There's one ID for the entire company and, by unifying buying, it should make it easier to earn discounts.

This sounds like a good thing, but as with anything involving licensing, the devil is in the details, and the details are the devil. The problem is there are too many details.

I spent months studying Microsoft licensing and learned enough to write two cover stories, one on Software Assurance and another on negotiating with Microsoft. But I felt I never completely got it -- and that may be part of the plan. The complexity makes it harder for customers, who need it all explained -- and by whom? Microsoft?

There is help. First, Scott Braden is the man when it comes to licensing. The only man who can almost make it sound simple, he taught me 90 percent of what I know on the subject. Scott's company, Microsoft Secrets, was acquired and is now part of (NET)net; here's its Web site.

Posted by Doug Barney on July 09, 20080 comments


Ballmer Still Yahoo for Yahoo

Microsoft isn't a company known for giving up easily -- and in the case of Yahoo, it's still stubbornly gunning for a deal.

You probably recall that after Ballmer’s $40 billion-plus bid was rejected, Microsoft gave up the chase, only to see Carl Icahn start to buy up shares, manipulate the board, try to get the deal done with Microsoft, and then cash in on the premium Microsoft would have to pay.

Seems like Ballmer is now fine with that approach, and is himself pushing for the Yahoo board to be largely overthrown so he can buy all or a part of the company.

I still think it’s a bad deal...but then again, Ballmer is worth $15 billion and I’m just an underpaid journalist.

Now imagine this scenario: Ballmer and Icahn end up replacing the Yahoo board, but then Microsoft doesn’t even buy the company. Imagine the fallout.

Should Ballmer buy Yahoo? Your erudite answers welcome at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on July 08, 20080 comments


Post-Holiday Patch Tuesday

Hopefully you all had a relaxing long holiday weekend, but now it's back to the grind. And today is patching time again as Microsoft plans to roll out four fixes.

Fortunately, they're all only "important," which is far less serious than "critical."

SQL Server is getting protection against elevation-of-privilege attacks, and Microsoft continues to plug remote code execution flaws.

Posted by Doug Barney on July 08, 20080 comments


IE 8 More Secure

Microsoft has long known it had a security problem with Internet Explorer, and it has struggled mightily to fix it. The company now argues that IE 8, now in beta, will be far more secure than any of its predecessors.

Chief among the protections are a way to stop cross-site scripting exploits, and safer surfing of social networking Web sites. There are also ways to keep hackers from jumping from an individual PC to the entire network.

What can Microsoft do to make IE safer? Should it remain a part of the OS and thus near-impossible to remove? Send your thoughts to [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on July 08, 20080 comments


Mailbag: Hyper-V a Non-Debate

Readers chime in on a grab-bag of topics -- the Hyper-V debate that isn't, the pros and cons of cloud computing, and Bill Gates' post-retirement plans:

Here's what has been annoying me about this Hyper-V versus VMware "debate": There's nothing to debate! People are approaching this as though Microsoft should be eviscerated for coming out with a 1.0 product -- how dare they! You mean Hyper-V version 1.0 doesn't match up feature-for-feature with ESX, a product that VMware has been working on for years? Well, that's no surprise, and I'm a bit astounded that people are acting so vehemently about this.

I for one am excited about Hyper-V. It's apparently targeted precisely at a shop my size. We have about 12 servers and around four or five of them are ready to be replaced so, for me, Hyper-V looks a lot more attractive than spending thousands on ESX features I don't need. We may someday need a more robust product, fine, but for the time being, I think Hyper-V is going to be just what the doctor ordered. So I wish people would get off their soapboxes and use whichever product suits them and leave everyone else alone to do the same thing.
-Greg

There is no choice in the browser wars! There are too many sites and devices on the Internet that do not play well with any browser but Internet Explorer. Our corporate HR Web site will not even let a user log in with a browser other that Internet Explorer.

Firefox is my default browser at home. It's fast, clean and functional. I use it for everything except the corporate stuff (and my Web cam). I have never been hijacked or seen a drive-by download using it. But I have been asked to clean more than my share of computers when the users (running IE), despite having AV and anti-spyware software installed, get stuck with a useless machine due to Internet pop-ups and browser hijacking.
-Tom

I love cloud computing for my own business and I am sure that others who try will, too. But there is a downside: Customisation is real tricky. So yes, I agree, the clouds are approaching fast, but once in the cloud, your business better fit the model or you are not going to be able to fine-tune your business model at all, wasting any savings that you might make.
-Garry

Perhaps I simply have a firm grasp of the obvious reason Billy Boy allegedly "retired": He is taking over the programming aspect of Microsoft once again, where he started, to be sure the next OS is not the embarrassment that Vista is, and will continue to be. Vista is to Windows 7 what Windows ME was to Windows XP -- simply a test product at the consumer's expense. After all, the stock price of Microsoft has dropped and he is no longer the wealthiest man on this planet. Ouch!
-R.M.

Finally, reader Chris took offense at the "Nick Hogan-induced coma" line in a recent Redmond Report, and most of you agreed with him -- but that doesn't mean the Hogans got off scot-free:

I have to agree with Chris. Your choice of that reference was in poor taste. No other analogy came to mind?
-Mercury

Regarding your Hogan controversy, I agree that it is offensive to refer to the victim's condition as some fun, pop-culture reference. I understand and share your disdain for the Hogans but think you displayed it in the wrong fashion.
-Peter

The whole Hogan tirade was in the wrong venue. Get a new frame of reference. Subscribe to Google Good News.
-Gordon

Clever, but yes, it was in poor taste, because while Nick Hogan and Hulk Hogan are indeed the dirtbags you proclaim them to be, the young man in the coma is not. Cut him a little slack for not hearing of Bill Gates' retirement due to his current circumstances.
-Phil

Surely your reader was referring to the victim when he cried foul, and not in support of a douchebag like Nick Hogan. Anyone that has watched Hulk Hogan over the decades knows that he's always been a douche. His latest antics are nothing new. I can't believe anyone would be upset because you pointed out the foul behavior of one of these sociopaths.
-Gerry

As for Hulk Hogan wearing his do-rag to court, I can only say that every true Texan knows a gentleman never wears his hat indoors. Even legendary Texan and Houston Oilers coach Bum Phillips never wore his Stetson inside the Astrodome because it was indoors. Then again, who would ever expect a professional wrestler to be a gentleman?
-Dave

I agree with you. The Hogan family does not deserve admiration, respect or attention in any way, shape or form. Anyone who jumps to their defense has been watching too many reality shows!
-Eric

Yep, Nick...and his dirtbag dad. Typical liberals -- they don't give a sh*t about anyone but themselves and believe they can do no wrong even when they do.
-Lloyd

What do you think? Share your thoughts by commenting below or send an e-mail to [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on July 08, 20080 comments


Patch That Browser

I don't use Internet Explorer even though it's still installed on my computer (this thing is dang impossible to take off!). I switched years ago to Firefox before IE 7 came out with tabs, and because Firefox is arguably the safer browser. Plus, it's just cooler -- like an iPod versus a Zune.

But was that the right choice? Well, according to a new report, it was dead-on. IE is more vulnerable.

One problem is that despite the well-publicized Patch Tuesdays and automated tools like Windows Update, IE users patch their browsers less than other users. The report also argues that it takes Microsoft too long to find a flaw and write a patch.

What makes the results just a wee bit suspect? The research was done by IBM and Google. Hmm.

What's your favorite browser and why? Tell us all by writing [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on July 02, 20080 comments


Defending Nick Hogan

Yesterday, I started an item about Bill Gates by saying, "Unless you were living in a bio-dome or were in a Nick Hogan-induced coma, you must have heard that Bill Gates retired last week."

Redmond Report reader Chris took offense and had this to say:

"Bad taste, Mr. Barney. I could see that coming from a young staff writer, but not from an editor in chief."

I wrote Chris back to point out that Nick Hogan isn't worth our admiration. Here's that message:

"Chris,

Take a look at these two links: 1 and 2. Nick Hogan essentially killed his friend, then he and his dad bad-mouthed the victim and plotted to make money from the accident.

Hulk Hogan showed disrespect to the court by not removing his do-rag even when testifying. Nick Hogan is a dirt bag."

Agree? Disagree? Sound off by writing me at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on July 02, 20080 comments


Mailbag: Hyper-V More Than Hype?

On Monday, Doug posted a letter from reader Mark who was less than enthusiastic about Hyper-V. Here are some more of your thoughts on the Microsoft hypervisor:

Sounds like he has a axe to grind. Hyper-V demonstrates a much more mature software product than the pre 1.0 that the reviewer exclaims. I have found Hyper-V to be an extremely stable and flexible product with a full Windows 2008 install or with a Server Core, the latter being much more locked down and hacker-safe.

In the next year or two, this product will have "world-class" written all over it.
-Howard

The issue at hand is that everyone (including Microsoft) is comparing this product to VMware ESX. Just because they strip the Start menu out of the OS to make Server Core, doesn't mean this is a bare-bones hypervisor. It's merely an evolution of Virtual Server allowing deeper penetration into VMware-entrenched territory. Now with the use of clustering, you can perform cold migrations and have the ability to use a ridiculous amount of processors in a VM.

There are other more glaring problems than killing a host through the parent partition -- like not being able to over-commit the level of RAM or iSCSI-only support. Hyper-V is a good ESX 1.0 competitor but no one will take it seriously until you get those two limitations straightened out, along with Live Migration.
-Lee

I have been using Hyper-V for about two months with few problems except for the following:

  • NO support for wireless adapters. Yes, you may argue that there is no place for wireless in a server environment, but what about us developers who emulate the complete client system on our laptops? I have been told that the reason is that Microsoft can not clone the MAC address of the wireless -- but it worked with Virtual PC!
  • Still no USB support.

As to running out of resources on the root/parent machine, that has never been a problem. I have configured it as core and not used the core machine for anything (other than Hyper-V). Bottom line, I think it is a good product and will become even better when Exchange 2007 is certified to run on Hyper-V.
-Tim

VMware Enterprise has many very cool features that Hyper-V lacks, but the reality is that Hyper-V is version 1 and really cheap to buy and use! For a test environment, it works great and is easy to use and set up. Heck, VMware now gives some of its products away for free in reaction to/anticipation of Microsoft's entry to the virtualization market.

The writing is on the wall for VMware. By the time Hyper-V is in rev 3 or 4, it will be able to support enterprise virtualization very well. Why pay 5K a processor for VMware Enterprise when you can get it much cheaper in Windows? Why hire a VMware OS expert when anyone that can admin Windows can admin Hyper-V?
-Chris

I'm planning to try Hyper-V as a small computer science experiment so that I can run Vista and XP in parallel. Toward this end, I built a new machine. I've installed Vista Ultimate on this machine while waiting for the Hyper-V RTM and discovered that it does a good job of supporting the hardware the Vista analyzer said wouldn't be supported (Epson Perfection 1650 scanner and ATI HDTV Wonder). But even so, I want to continue with my experiment to see what happens and possibly write up my experience for the benefit of others. This is going to be a budget project; I got Vista Ultimate and a one-year Windows 2008 trial from Microsoft for free. Now my wait for Hyper-V is over and I'm ready to start.

But where to start? This is the purpose of this e-mail. Do I have to build a new system from scratch, starting with Win08, reinstall Vista, etc.? Or can I "import" an existing installation of Vista and install a new version of XP? And what do I do with the downloadable images Microsoft provides? Should I use a core Win08 60-day trial and just extend it three more times as Microsoft suggests? Then can I update that install with my one-year trial product key? Can I extend my one-year trial three times? Does virtualization share peripheral hardware (i.e., NICs) or do I really need to have two machines worth of hardware on one motherboard? It doesn't seem likely that two OSes can share the same MAC/IP address, I must admit, but that would be quite a problem if I wanted to run 12 OSes as "astute reader Mark" desires to do.

Keep the info coming. I'm indeed about as giddy as Mark suggests but I'm not going to let his comments spoil my buzz. I can see from his comments why an actual server administrator might be a bit less than over-enthused by Hyper-V 1.0. If I can get just XP Pro and Vista Ultimate to coexist, I'll be one happy camper.
-Eric

And after Doug's announcement that he's once again manning the Redmond Report column full-time, Gordon wanted to get just one thing straight:

Not THIS purple dinosaur?!
-Gordon

Join the fray! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on July 02, 20080 comments