Microsoft Virtual Server is now free

Today Microsoft announced that Virtual Server 2005 R2 will be available as a free download (yay!) - you can go to https://www.microsoft.com/virtualserver to grab a copy. Now to answer some questions that I am predicting people will have:

  1. So does this mean Virtual PC is dead?

    Not at all. Microsoft is still actively developing Virtual PC and you can expect to see updates on this in the future (but apart from that - my lips are sealed - so don't ask for more information).

  2. You guys are just doing this in response to VMware / Xen / etc... - right?

    Not really. Microsoft has announced that Windows virtualization technology will be available as part of Windows in the Longhorn Server wave. Given this - charging for virtualization today just does not make sense.

  3. Is it Virtual Server 2005 R2 Standard Edition or Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition that is being made available?

    Enterprise.

Have fun everyone!

Cheers,
Ben