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February 12, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Sun's Innotek acquisition a smart buy
It was bound to happen eventually. Somebody, somewhere, was going to see the light and snatch-up the last of the original virtualization pioneers, Innotek, makers of the VirtualBox Virtual Machine platform for Windows, Linux and Macintosh systems.
That somebody is Sun Microsystems. And based on the wording of their press release, I'm convinced they did so for all the right reasons.
For starters, they recognize that Innotek's strength is in the desktop space. Though the German virtualization developer has been working on some more server-centric models (including at least one 32-core implementation), they're greatest success has been as a low or no-cost alternative to VMware Workstation and Microsoft Virtual PC.
But perhaps even more important is Sun's recognition of Innotek's commitment to developers. VirtualBox has long been the preferred solution for open-source programmers seeking to "roll their own" virtualization platforms. The combination of componentization (virtually every layer of VirtualBox can be scripted or accessed programmatically) and GNU public licensing of the VirtualBox source code makes for an attractive package that Sun can use to further its own FOSS goals.
So, congratulations (I seem to be saying that a lot lately) to Innotek, and a hearty "bravo!" to Sun for seeing the value in VirtualBox and its potential as a building block for a robust Desktop virtualization strategy.
Posted by Randall Kennedy on February 12, 2008 11:36 AM
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Let's hope Sun fixes it before re-releasing it.
A desktop virtualization product that doesn't support USB in guests isn't all that useful. Especially when it doesn't install correctly to Linux out of the box. (don't know why, lost interest when I found out about the USB issue)
Posted by: alizard at February 17, 2008 01:23 PM"GNU public licensing" is as ambiguous as someone referring to InfoWorld as iWorld or just IW. VirtualBox is provided under the GNU *General* Public License. The text of the *General* Public License can be found on the Free Software Foundation website and also provided with VirtualBox. However, the text of "GNU public licensing" is not available on the FSF website or provided with VirtualBox.
Posted by: fluke at February 20, 2008 10:51 AMAlizard, the non-GPL, free-as-in-beer version supports USB; it's only the GPL, free-as-in-speech version which does not. Sun may decide to open up the USB code as well; I'm hoping they do.
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