Microsoft deals virtualisation API freebie
BUYING TIME to hot back in virtualisation software, Microsoft has said it will open up a key API in Viridian.
A draft of the hypercall API has been posted on the Windows Server web site so that partners can get to grips with integrating and modifying Microsoft’s virtualisation software soonest, and even commercialising product based on their endeavours.
The final hypercall API will be available when Viridian, these days officially called Windows Server virtualisation, is released to manufacturing. Those who have been following the saga know that comes 180 days (count them) after Windows Server, formerly Longhorn, itself.
With VMware having developed close to $40 billion worth of value and XenSource deemed worthy of $500 million by Citrix, Microsoft knows it is behind the 8-ball, stuck in the jaws of the pocket and needing to achieve extravagant side with the cue in order to get back in the virtualisation game. To mix pool and religious metaphors, its saving grace, potentially, is the ability to give away the program for free with the rest of its stack. We’re sure regulators will be watching just how it manages that without upsetting the competition.
Microsoft will also rely on friends to help. Novell’s Suse Linux will use the Xen hypervisor to host para-virtualised Windows Server guests. Xensource works closely with Microsoft, and has a small team working on the Redmond campus to ensure interoperability. Also, Citrix and Microsoft have a long history of working together. So this one is set up as another software head-to-head set-to, this time between Vmware and Microsoft. µ
See Also
Microsoft
releases virtualisation additions for Linux
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Nothing is free..... MS will have to pay to get into the Game. IT is the American Way of doing Business and IT works QuITe well. 

But you're bound to buy a few turkeys now and again, but so what whenever it is only dollars you're spending. As long as the machine keeps rolling they're bound to hit on a winner sooner or later.

Well, I imagine that must be the Hope although the dollar could certainly do with their help presently. 

Perhaps they could buy something worthwhile to stop its slide ...or are they clueless too?