--- title: "VMware Server to become a *free* product" url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2006/2/4/vmware-server-to-become-a-free-product.md" canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2006/2/4/vmware-server-to-become-a-free-product.html" published: "2006-02-04T00:16:00" updated: "2006-02-04T00:16:00" tags: ["Cool Tools"] author: "Roy Osherove" description: "\"Anyhow, here's the deal: as of Monday, VMware is releasing the beta version of a new product, VMware Server, which is the successor to their existing VMware GSX Server product. VMware Server will be a free product for…" usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)." license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" --- # VMware Server to become a \*free\* product By Roy Osherove February 4, 2006 In [Cool Tools](https://osherove.com/blog/category/cool-tools) **Historical article** · Originally published February 4, 2006; technical details may be outdated. _"Anyhow, here's the deal: as of Monday, VMware is releasing the beta version of a new product, VMware Server, which is the successor to their existing VMware GSX Server product. VMware Server will be a **free** product for server virtualization. This is, frankly, a market-changing move, and one that I expect a lot of people will take advantage of..."_ _"...VMware Server offers quite a nice list of features, including support for 64-bit operating systems in both host and guest, virtual SMP, and a remote management console. It will be available for download from_ [_http://www.vmware.com/download/VMwareServer_](http://www.vmware.com/download/VMwareServer) _(though that URL may not be active until Monday). With this coming out for free, I can't see why anyone would bother buying Microsoft Virtual Server - or run servers on bare metal"_ _\[via [Larkware](http://www.larkware.com/editorials/vmware.html)\]_ The server in question is their GSX product, not the ESX one, but that's still huge. Read the [CNet news on this here](http://news.com.com/VMware+to+make+server+product+free/2100-1012_3-6034615.html?tag=cd.top). Mike is right. This is **huge** news. I used to use VMware before MS came out with Virtual PC. I switched mainly because of the fact that VPC came in with my MSDN Subscription. But VMware was my favorite. I'd be testing this thing out come Monday (that link is dead for now), and I really hope their workstation product will be free as well, though who knows. It's also good news for VPC users, since the competition just grew up a notch, and MS is sure to try and beat out VMware for features/scalability etc.. It's going to be an interesting future! ## More in Cool Tools [All posts in Cool Tools](https://osherove.com/blog/category/cool-tools) - Feb 6, 2006 ### [Need an online version of Word or Excel? Try Writely and iRows.](https://osherove.com/blog/2006/2/6/need-an-online-version-of-word-or-excel-try-writely-and-irow.html) - Feb 4, 2006 ### [Amazoner and iTunes](https://osherove.com/blog/2006/2/4/amazoner-and-itunes.html) - Feb 2, 2006 ### [HanselMinutes on CI tools, and a free EBook on Agile Skills](https://osherove.com/blog/2006/2/2/hanselminutes-on-ci-tools-and-a-free-ebook-on-agile-skills.html) - Feb 1, 2006 ### [Why Reboot? This software will help with the answer.](https://osherove.com/blog/2006/2/1/why-reboot-this-software-will-help-with-the-answer.html) --- ## About the author **Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery. ### Sites - [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership. - [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts. - [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin. - [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model. - [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps. - [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes). ### Social - X: https://x.com/royosherove - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/ ### Contact - Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7 ### License Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/