Microsoft Opens Up Vista Virtualization
Microsoft, still trying to find its way in the new world of virtualization
licensing, has changed its mind again on Windows Vista, and now says it will
allow more versions of the desktop OS to be virtualized.
Last June,
Microsoft said
that only the business versions of Vista--Business and Ultimate--were
eligible to be made into virtual machines (VMs). The revelation came the
same day Redmond was set to announce that two home versions--Home Basic
and Home Premium--were going to be made able, confusing industry watchers
with the sudden switch.
Monday, Microsoft reversed course again and
added Home Basic and Home Premium to the virtualization-eligible list. The
announcement means that all versions of Vista are now available for
virtualization purposes.
Virtualization is the process of abstracting
software from the underlying hardware. It allows multiple operating systems
to be run on one physical computer, or multiple instances of the same OS to
be run on a single box. Virtualization also allows mobility, allowing a
remote worker, for example, to keep a virtual copy of his or her OS on a USB
drive, which can then be loaded onto another computer.
Microsoft will
presumably make the official announcement during a Webcast on Tuesday. It's
in the midst of a two-day "Virtualization Deployment Summit" in
Redmond.
That wasn't the only virtualization-related news to come out
of the meeting. Microsoft announced the acquisition of San Jose-based
virtualization vendor Calista
Technologies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Calista's
software is concerned with improving the virtualized desktop experience. VMs
typically run slower than a traditional desktop, owing to the additional
software layer between it and the hardware, creating a substantial amount of
processing overhead and, subsequently causing a performance
hit.
Calista helps Vista and other Windows desktop VMs perform more
efficiently, so the user experience is closer to a native implementation.
According to Calista's Website, it's specially effective at enhancing
multimedia uses like 3-D, Windows Media Player and other graphics-intensive
applications.
Opening up the rest of the Vista line helps Microsoft's
bottom line in several ways. First, each virtualized copy of Vista requires
a license, meaning more money in Redmond's licensing coffers. Second, having
more copies of Vista available pushes forward the OSes' adoption rate,
something Microsoft has been pushing hard to do since Vista was first
introduced more than a year ago.
Although Microsoft has continually
touted Vista's strong sales numbers, it's clear
, both from anecdotal evidence and actions
from Microsoft and other vendors, that Vista continues to struggle in the
marketplace.
About the Author
Keith Ward is online news editor for the Redmond Media Group. You can contact him at [email protected].