OStatic

Analysts and observers are still digesting the recent news of VMware's acquisition of SpringSource for $420 million, and I continue to find interesting perspectives cropping up. As we discussed here, the move has the potential to put the squeeze on Red Hat, especially in the application server and enterprise software development markets. It also gives VMware a lot more credibility with developers, because SpringSource's Spring Framework is a popular enterprise Java programming environment, it maintains the Apache Tomcat Java app server project, and more. It also gives VMware a strong presence in the open source arena, when it has been seriously threatened by open source virtualization offerings.

This week, though, Todd Weiss, writing on Linux.com, discussed how many analysts see the move as allowing VMware to tie virtualization directly to applications without requiring a separate operating system. Could VMware have its eye on the fast-growing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) arena, aiming to deliver virtualized apps that users and IT administrators can hop in and out of without a tie to a parent OS??

As everyone digests the big news that VMware intends to buy SpringSource for $420 million--its biggest acquisition ever--I'm inclined to think that the move primarily represents a dedicated step from VMware away from just being a virtualization player. As we've discussed before,?VMware has been tightly squeezed by competition from open source and free, bundled virtualization software offerings. Its relatively new CEO Paul Maritz (who was a long time Microsoft executive), knows what it is for proprietary platforms to face free, open source competition, and SpringSource can help VMware compete very directly with Red Hat, particularly in the application server market.

Still, along with Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems, the move from VMware provides yet another example of a smaller company that has retained a strong focus on open source being acquired by a much larger, proprietary competitor. Just before last year ended, we predicted?that open source mergers and acquisitions would increase dramatically this year, but who would have thought that we would see such huge acquisitions? What are the implications for VMware, Red Hat, and open source?

In a move that marks a notable shift for Microsoft, the company has announced that it has released 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux community. The code includes three Linux device drivers, and has been submitted to the Linux kernel community for inclusion in the Linux tree. The drivers will be available to the Linux community and customers alike, and will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V or Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, company officials said in a statement.

Sam Ramji, Microsoft's open source czar, commented on the move in an interview posted on Microsoft's site. Today?s release would have been unheard of from Microsoft a few years ago, he said but it?s a prime example that customer demand is a powerful catalyst for change. It's a smart, long overdue play from the company.

Virtualization software vendor VirtualBox has released a new beta of version of VirtualBox 3.0 with a heavy emphasis on graphics support that's sure to please anyone who uses graphics-intensive games and applications. VirtualBox 3.0 beta 1 contains a number of improvements and updates to existing features, squashes several bugs, and it also has three new major features.

Microsoft beating Mozilla...in open-source licensing. Adoption of its open source Microsoft Public License (MS-PL) is more prevalent than you think.

First look: Opera Unite alpha lets you share files -- but is it safe? The browser offers people their own web server, but what are the security risks?

EnterpriseDB brings Postgres closer to Oracle. It's more compatible and more scalable.

Red Hat's virtualization plan enters next phase. The company is aiming to challenge VMware and Citrix.

Microsoft beating Mozilla...in open-source licensing. Adoption of its open source Microsoft Public License (MS-PL) is more prevalent than you think.

First look: Opera Unite alpha lets you share files -- but is it safe? The browser offers people their own web server, but what are the security risks?

EnterpriseDB brings Postgres closer to Oracle. It's more compatible and more scalable.

Red Hat's virtualization plan enters next phase. The company is aiming to challenge VMware and Citrix.