virtualization

Citrix to buy XenSource for $500 million; open-source company valuations skyrocketing (UPDATED)

Wow. The ink was barely dry on my critique of Tim O'Reilly's position on whether proprietary companies will buy up the open-source companies, and along comes the news that Citrix is buying XenSource. It's a good technology fit, but Citrix would have been one of the last companies I would have accused of a predilection for open source.

Mea ignoranta.

The news is pretty intriguing, and funny on at least one count:… Read more

Citrix to buy virtualization company XenSource for $500 million

One day after the spectacular public offering of virtualization company VMware, Citrix Systems on Wednesday said that it intends to acquire open-source virtualization company XenSource for about $500 million.

Citrix makes so-called thin client software that delivers business applications from servers to desktop computers.

By acquiring XenSource, the company intends to move into the adjacent server and desktop virtualization market.

The acquisition will be financed through a combination of stock and cash and includes the assumption of $107 million in a vested stock options.

The company's open-source "hypervisor" software, called Xen, lets a single computer run multiple … Read more

VMware prices stock offering at $29 a share

VMware said late Monday that its stock offering is ready to go forward, with shares priced at $29 per share. The virtualization software specialist will begin trading on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "VMW."

VMware had been an independent company until storage giant EMC announced a $635 million acquisition of the software maker in December 2003. In February of this year, EMC said it would sell a stake in the company through a public offering. The stock offering comes as virtualization is taking on an increasingly central role in the computing world.

Virtualization--threat or menace?

VMware is in the news these days for two related reasons.

First, VMware Fusion for Mac OS X recently went on sale. Fusion enables Mac users to run Windows and other operating systems simultaneously with their regular Mac applications, which pretty much solves the old problem of… Read more

Wii virtual console releases for this week

Nintendo continues 'The Month of Metroid' with the release of Samus Aran's original adventure on the virtual console. With it come two other games no one remembers from their childhood.

Metroid (1987, NES, 500 Wii points)--The original Metroid game helped shape the face of adventure platformers. In fact, the mechanics first introduced in Metroid are still emulated to this day. And for all you die-hard Metroid fans, apparently " Justin Bailey" still works. Shining in the Darkness (1991, Sega Genesis, 800 Wii points)--Shining in the Darkness is an adventure game that puts you in the middle … Read more

New Yamaha Digital Sound Projectors add HDMI

When it released the original Digital Sound Projector in 2005, Yamaha was one of the first mainstream manufacturers to dabble in the burgeoning virtual surround-sound field. Since then, the company's products have been the benchmark in the single-speaker surround field. Not content to rest on its laurels in the face of increasing competition, Yamaha's just announced three new models, which make up the third-generation of the Digital Sound Projector line. All three are designed to deliver a wider soundstage than earlier units, and include new 5-Channel and "My Surround" modes in addition to standard Dolby Digital and DTS decoding modes. While they can be used in conjunction with AV receivers, each model is essentially a fully functioning home-theater-in-a-box, so you can just connect your sources (DVD, cable/satellite, game consoles, etc.), and be good to go. The big step-up feature for 2007 is the addition of HDMI connectivity to the two top-of-the-line models. Details are as follows:… Read more

Free copies of Vista and XP from your uncle

I downloaded a copy of Windows Vista off the Internet last night. And since the same site had XP, I got that too.

I figured it was okay, since I was doing research for the blog here.

It was all very convenient. The server where I found them has a lot of bandwidth, so the files (4.5GB and 1.8GB respectively) downloaded quickly. These are pre-installed disk images, so there's no trouble with activation.

The greatest irony is that the group providing them for download has configured them for maximum security-- so once you have them running, you … Read more

Multiverse to launch version 1.0 of its virtual world platform

For people wanting to design their own 3D virtual world, or online game, doing so just got a little bit closer to reality.

That's because the Multiverse Network has announced version 1.0 of its development platform, a system that allows anyone to create a fully functional massively multiplayer online game based on a common set of tools.

Until now, the platform had been in beta, but over the last year or so, more than 11,000 teams of designers have begun using it.

Multiverse's model provides the platform free of charge to anyone who wants it. The … Read more

Inside CNET Labs: Yet another way to get Windows on your Mac

VMware announced today that its virtualization software for the Mac, VMware Fusion--which has been in beta since December 2006--will start shipping as of Monday, August 6. Fusion joins SWsoft's Parallels Desktop for Mac as available options to run additional, concurrent operating systems on Intel-based Macs as virtual machines.

VMware claims that Fusion supports more than 60 operating systems--both 32- and 64-bit--with dual-core processor support. While some users will benefit from being able to run Novell Netware or Linux as virtual machines on their Intel Macs, the largest user-base will mostly consist of those looking to run Windows Vista … Read more