04.19.09
VMware and Juniper Serve Windows After Appointing Microsoft Employees as CEOs
Company CEO: running a company or taking orders from another?
Summary: Companies promote Microsoft’s agenda after accepting Microsoft executives as CEOs
IT IS hardly deniable that Microsoft has — to an extent — hijacked the agenda at VMware. It put no less than three of its employees at the very top of the company. VMware was very hostile towards Microsoft prior to that; in fact, it was going to take it all the way up to the top with antitrust complaints. In 2007 Microsoft used a similar strategy against XenSource, which probably began with the Redmond relocation, a special deal, an the involvement of former Microsoft employees (Ignition Partners). The Linux Foundation is already willing to take Xen to the cleaners.
A longer-term ally of Microsoft is H-P. To give just a couple of examples (although there are many more), H-P lobbied for Microsoft OOXML and it also promotes Silverlight through a toolbar.
Putting two and two together, who would have guessed that a Microsoft-dominated VMware management may join forces with H-P to advance Microsoft? Watch this news report. It’s all about Windows, probably competing against GNU/Linux-based thin clients.
HP is adding three new thin-client devices to its family of systems that will support Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard. HP also is incorporating software enhancements to improve the overall user experience in VMware View environments, and is working with VMware to enable improved performance for remote desktop sessions. In adddition, HP is offering its Client Automation management software as an option with the new thin clients.
Hewlett-Packard is expanding its thin-client offerings with new devices, greater collaboration with VMware and enhanced manageability.
Here is a way to put it more clearly, in the words of Dana Gardner: “HP teams with Microsoft, VMware to expand appeal of desktop virtualization solutions”
“It sure seems like another new alliance which is hostile towards GNU/Linux.”Wow. It sure seems like another new alliance which is hostile towards GNU/Linux. Is anybody surprised?
The new article which is titled “Virtualization: VMware vs. Microsoft vs. Xen, 2009″ neglects to point out that all three options are now pretty much controlled by Microsoft (through its allies, partners, and/or former employees).
There’s more in this week’s news however. Remember Juniper Networks, which had a Microsoft executive put in charge of it? The following was published some days ago by Associated Press and it is serving as a reminder that Microsoft’s Kevin Johnson is now the CEO of Juniper.
Juniper Networks Inc. Chief Executive Kevin Johnson received a compensation package for 2008 valued at $36.1 million, according to an Associated Press analysis of figures released in a filing last week.
Look what they are doing right now at Juniper, becoming defenders of Windows.
It is important to realise the dangers of Microsoft employees landing in other companies. A European government delegate compared this company's methods to "Scientology cult". █
“He [Bill Gates] is divisive. He is manipulative. He is a user. He has taken much from me and the industry.”
–Gary Kildall
Roy Bixler said,
April 20, 2009 at 6:56 am
Years ago, before the change of leadership at VMWare, I had the occasion to use VMWare’s ESX server virtualisation system. It surprised me that the GUI interface for managing virtual machines runs only on Windows. I asked my co-worker, who set up the system and is definitely no fan of Windows, about this. He said that he supposed VMWare just assumed that all enterprise customers would have a Windows licence and didn’t consider it a priority to develop a Linux GUI interface. As this disappointment shows, VMWare wasn’t all that Windows hostile in the past. Rather, they were more neutral and pragmatic. In the future, I definitely don’t expect a Linux management GUI to materialise and do expect there to be more deals with vendors to promote Windows.