From the register I saw the article "Virtualization Software to Crush Server Market" and it sort of made me laugh.   Last year saw a dramatic drop in growth of Server shipments, both Microsoft and non-Microsoft.  One explanation given is that virtualisation has increased so much that less servers are being bought, but the growth was still strong, just not in actual servers.  I have seen the growth of virtual servers, but don't think it really accounts for the hundreds of thousands of servers that fill the gap that appeared in the research last year.  VMWare's growth does not account for this, nor does the impact on Windows licensing that would be seen.

Analysts and executives came out this week and declared that x86 server shipments will likely decline as VMware, Microsoft, and a host of startups push their virtualization wares at speed.

In a rare feat, Schwartz and Sacconaghi also happen to agree about another trend that virtualization will drive. They're claiming that customers will buy larger, more memory- and component-packed servers moving forward to handle the demanding virtualization code. Why consolidate a couple of workloads on a two-socket box when you can consolidate more software on a four- or eight-socket system and deal with less hardware management overhead?

According to Sacconaghi, the trend toward larger systems will hurt Dell, since it has specialized in two-socket gear. It will, however, also hurt Sun, since x86 virtualization will only speed the move away from Unix systems.

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The mainframe arena - the place where VMware pinched its genius - has survived virtualization for a long while, as has the Unix market. Each segment, including the x86 market, has its unique attributes, making apples v. apples comparisons tough. Still, customer demand for more horsepower serves as constant across all three markets, and we suspect it will keep overall demand for servers high, despite virtualization code.

Moving this theory along, Microsoft has announced that the license for Vista and Windows XP does not allow for virtualisation on top of Linux - Microsoft Nixes Windows Virtualization on Linux

Virtual PC is still free as is Virtual Server, with the capabilities of these products growing and allowing more functionality.  I expect to see some virtual software running on SBS for some customers in the near future where people want split functionality, but I don't expect it to be huge!!

ttfn

David