"We are going to cut off their air supply. Everything they're selling, we're going to give away for free."

--Paul Maritz, former Microsoft Vice President, referring to Netscape

Paul Maritz
Photo by Robert Scoble

Summary: Tough situation for F/OSS companies that were devoured by the ex-Sofies who run VMware after EMC had intervened

ALTHOUGH we mentioned this before, it is worth repeating the fact that Microsoft's allies at EMC [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] are supporting and promoting Microsoft Exchange [1, 2, 3], even though VMware, which EMC owns and put former Microsoft executives in change of, currently owns Zimbra. For those who are not familiar with Zimbra, it is a direct competitor to Exchange/Outlook which Microsoft would rather see eliminated. The latest press release about EMC/Microsoft says: "EMC Helps Customers Extend the Value of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Environments"

Meanwhile, we also find more signs in the news that the group of Microsoft executives who moved to VMware are benefiting and rewarding Vista 7 despite its scarce adoption rates.

VMware has upgraded its ThinApp application virtualisation software in order to incorporate support for Microsoft Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2, according to a company blog. ThinApp 4.5, which VMware is calling the most significant application virtualisation update since its debut in 2008.

Several years back, VMware was seen as a force that would promote GNU/Linux. This cannot happen under the current management, which also seems to be closing SpringSource (Glyn Moody implicitly pointed this out last week). ⬆