Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Virtual PC 2004 is now free and Virtual PC 2007 is on the way!

Dugie's Pensieve — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 01:50:48 GMT

Ok so there have been assorted hints that a new version Virtual PC is on it's way -- but as of today...

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Virtual Man — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 07:49:10 GMT

Uh, it looks like someone forgot to tell the Mac Business Unit that they're expected to give away one of their flagship products.

You might want to revise your post to include that fact. It looks like only Virtual PC for Windows is free. Which sucks, because Microsoft would be able to sell another copy of Windows for me to run on my G5 if VPC/Mac was free.

Oh, well. They've handled this announcement with the same grace that they've handled all the other bad news of the past couple of years.

[Sorry for the confusion, Virtual Man. I've never talked about Virtual PC for Mac on my blog, so I didn't even think to specify that this announcement doesn't include it. I've updated the post. - mikekol]

JoshBlog » W00T, MS VPC is now free

JoshBlog » W00T, MS VPC is now free — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 08:59:13 GMT

PingBack from http://thejoshblog.wordpress.com/2006/07/13/w00t-ms-vpc-is-now-free/

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

anonymous coward — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 09:03:42 GMT

But does it run linux?

[It sure does. - mikekol]

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Robert Brown — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 09:16:59 GMT

As a big user of Microsoft products as well as Mac, I think Microsoft should consider offering Virtual PC for the MAC Free as well?

They are of course up against the likes of PARALLELS and iEmulator.

I have PARALLELS running Windows XP Professional and it is truly the best of both worlds.

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

anonymous coward II — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 09:20:51 GMT

anonymous coward,

Not officially supported, but yes, it will run linux.

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

anon — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 09:31:21 GMT

So you are trying to do to VMWare what you did to Netscape?

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Pasamio — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 10:09:27 GMT

Only a few typos in this as well...

Will bring it inline with the current market leaders, which sounds familiar really...

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Jon — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 10:37:09 GMT

As a student I could already get this for free. And yet I still find myself using VMware Server. What can I say? Somehow VMware just feels faster and better - I'm happy to see what VPC 2007 has to offer but it's a shame that it will of course not accept a linux host (this is probably my main use for VMware these days).

Microsoft to offer FREE Virtual PC

Microsoft to offer FREE Virtual PC — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 11:08:52 GMT

PingBack from http://www.dotcomunderground.com/blogs/2006/07/13/microsoft-to-offer-free-virtual-pc/

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Juan Diego — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 11:16:48 GMT

Will Windows XP owners be allowed to install another copy of the operating system in his own machine using Virtual PC?

[Nope - the licensing changes will only effect Windows Vista Enterprise (and Ultimate under SA). The license for XP requires that you have a separate license for each instance running, even if it's in a VM. - mikekol]

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

John Ritchie — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:09:53 GMT

Wish it mattered to me... But it doesn't. If you buy a new PC you get stuck with the Operating System it was designed for.

Download MS Virtual PC for free!

Greg Postlewait — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:22:32 GMT

http://blogs.msdn.com/mikekol/archive/2006/07/12/662511.aspx
If you haven't yet used Virtual PC to play...

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Zwirwel — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:30:01 GMT

This is really great news. Virtual PC is excellent for tech support call centres like ours, where we often need to have quick access to different versions of Windows and be able to tinker with them along with the customer.

Now what we'd love to see in Virtual PC would be a way to emulate a wireless card, even if its just to the host, with WEP/WPA.

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Nick — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:30:12 GMT

Does anyone care? The world uses VMware and XEN already, MS are a bit player in this market, the one positive piece of information in this announcement is about four instances on one license being useful.

I know I won't be switching my virtual servers anytime soon.

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

mickey — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 16:12:43 GMT

i don`t konw

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Ken — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 16:30:55 GMT

Personally as both a Mac user and a windows user I do not mind paying for VirtualPc on the Mac. BUT I would like the Mac's version of VirtualPc to allow a user to use more than 512 of RAM. Kind of sucks when you have a 2 GB Mac and can only use 512 while in VirtualPc.

Please pass that on...

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Chris — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 16:49:41 GMT

If virtual_pc for windows is free, then the Mac version should not be priced at more than twice as much!

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Glenn — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 17:23:28 GMT

I have to agree that if the Windows version is free then the mac version should also be free.

Does anyone think that this realease is only because VMWare released the final version of thier server product today? The only reason anyone in their right mind would use virtual pc is on a powerpc mac. Otherwise use VMWare. Much more streamlined product. Microsoft had a chance here to convince me otherwise but since the Mac version still costs money they have blown their chance.

Virtual PC Now Free

Shadowin — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 18:36:39 GMT

Great news from Redmond today:

As of today, Microsoft has announced that Virtual PC will be availble as a free download to anyone who wants a copy. We've already made Virtual Server available for free, so it only makes sense that Virtual PC should

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

blanky — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 18:36:57 GMT

Considering I paid over $100 for it before MS took over connectix the "free" doesn't really do anything for me.

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Not impressed — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 21:08:57 GMT

Yey, free Virtual PC. But would you really use that? It's stupidly slow and everything runs like a terminal. If you want real virtualization, wherein the virtual OS doesn't run like a terminal, go for VMware Player. It's free, stable, and doesn't take forever to load. VMware's website even has an entire directory listing of virtual appliances that you can download.

Free? Sure, it's free... but that's all they have to offer: free.

[I'm curious - why is it you think that we run things as a "terminal"? - mikekol]

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

TheScogg — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 00:27:45 GMT

Sweet! Now I can run WindowsXP apps under ReactOS in WindowsXP through emulation via VirtualPC!

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Hommie the Clown — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 01:08:20 GMT

>If virtual_pc for windows is free, then the Mac version >should not be priced at more than twice as much!

Twice as much? Two times free, or two times nothing, still equals nothing. But, the Mac version is not free. What gives?

The Mac version is infinitely more expensive. However much the Mac version costs, it's value divided by zero will always be infinite.

boolean’s n3wblog » Blog Archive » It’s update time!

boolean’s n3wblog » Blog Archive » It’s update time! — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 01:59:10 GMT

PingBack from http://n3wb.com/boolean/archives/2006/07/its-update-time/

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

jogo — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 04:56:31 GMT

it makes sense to do so, because it sells copies of windows.
it will also be good for the same reason to offer it free for the next version that works for the intel macs because this will also help sell copies of windows.

web2grow - web stuff » VPC form Win - now free

web2grow - web stuff » VPC form Win - now free — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 07:38:24 GMT

PingBack from http://www.web2grow.com/web-design-australia/?p=104

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Mort — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 08:21:10 GMT

Has anyone actually tried running a single instance of Vista in a VM? Now try running four of them at once and see how much fun it is!

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

chow — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 19:40:34 GMT

good

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

chow — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 19:41:03 GMT

good

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

chow — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 19:41:31 GMT

good

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Chris W — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 22:58:24 GMT

1. Why are you doing this?

2. With all of the whining you have been doing about iTunes Music Store songs not being open for playing on Plays For Sure devices, why won't you allow your made-for-Windows software to be freely downloaded and run on other systems?

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Virtualization > Emulation — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 00:05:57 GMT

In response to:

[I'm curious - why is it you think that we run things as a "terminal"? - mikekol]

Well, it's simple really. VPC uses emulation techniques while VMware uses real virtualization layer. Here's an experiment for those of you who can't tell the difference:

- Try running memory intensive application on one machine that has the spec of a 1990s computer. See how everything is slow and response lags by 2 seconds or more? That's how VPC feels like.

- Now try running your modern computer with the same memory intensive applications. That's how VMware feels like.

It's terminal-feel vs real-live-computer-feel. They should call it MS PC Emulator not Virtual PC. Don't fret, everyone still uses/loves Windows ;) I know I do.

[It all depends on what you mean when you're referring to 'VMWare'. VMWare Workstation and GSX Server use emulation technology similar to Virtual PC and Virtual Server, so they're comparable products, respectively.

ESX Server uses a hypervisor-based approach, which is comparable to Xen and Microsoft's Windows Server Virtualization offering that's still in development.

So, if you're comparing apples to apples, VPC and VMWare Workstation aren't all that dissimilar. - mikekol]

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Virtualization > Emulation — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 02:28:45 GMT

Not to be rude, but it's more like apple seeds to apple tree there. You mentioned you've never used VMware, so I know where you are coming from. If you say MS VPC to VM Workstation is more comparable, then it's even worse than I thought. I was comparing VPC to VM Player under the freebie criteria. Even at that level, VM Player out performs the MS VPC. I actually bought MS VPC long ago for my Mac. Why? Because they are the only viable option. MS is lucky VMware did not go into that market. Too bad.

Oh and don't say "with VPC you can create VMs, with VM Player you can't!" Google that subject and you'll find out that people have been creating VMs out of VM Player for free. Yeah ok, it's a hack, but it's an easy one.

About:
ESX Server uses a hypervisor-based approach, which is comparable to Xen and Microsoft's Windows Server Virtualization offering that's still in development.

"Comparable" isn't the right term here. That's not even close to reality. MS and Xen had just started to pack up for their camp. VMware has already built an entire civilization when it comes to Hypervisor technology. MS/Xen is years and years behind that technology.

Slow, unstable, too many limitations, and takes forever to launch or close... That's what's disappointing about VPC. It's cool that MS is "trying."

Free? Well, that's the easy part.

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

anonymous — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 17:48:28 GMT

imagine a beowulf cluster of <i>those</i>

Dashing Reverie » Blog Archive » MS releases Virtual PC 2004 for free

Dashing Reverie » Blog Archive » MS releases Virtual PC 2004 for free — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 15:21:47 GMT

PingBack from http://www.dashingreverie.com/2006/07/20/ms-releases-virtual-pc-2004-for-free/

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Petter — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 17:28:25 GMT

To sum it up, Virtual PC is easier to set up and use than the VMWare offerings. It is generally considered slower and with less features, but as Microsoft user, VirtualPC has more features and better support for my needs.

Your mileage may vary, but I have dabbled with VMWare and have no need for the added complexity.

Petter

Hacking VMWare Player...

Rexiology::Work — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:03:14 GMT

&nbsp;
It's nice to have VMWare Player for free, to be able to install on any pc for virtualization....

Hacking VMWare Player...

Rexiology... — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:11:14 GMT

&nbsp;
crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/
It's nice to have VMWare Player for free, to be...

www.nickhodge.com | mungenet » Blog Archive » Our Virtual Future: There are Cycles to Burn

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 13:36:16 GMT

PingBack from http://www.nickhodge.com/blog/archives/1643

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

free online credt report — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 20:28:15 GMT

free online credt report <a href=http://freeonlinecredtreport.ueuo.com>free online credt report</a>

Tech Prediction: VT will rock your world

The Alistair Speirs blog — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 14:17:36 GMT

Hypervisor. Vanderpool. Pacifica. These are the technologies that are going to rock my world in the next...

Under the Surface » links for 2006-07-30

Under the Surface » links for 2006-07-30 — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 22:57:09 GMT

PingBack from http://www.quinnli.com/blog/archives/63

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

ap — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 19:01:01 GMT

not fair

virtual pc should be free for mac too.
or is there anyway of making it possible?

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

Ping — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 06:44:10 GMT

These guys are stoned. VMWARE is head and shoulders above Virtual PC.

re: Good News Everyone: VPC and licensing goodness ensue!

mck — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 11:33:19 GMT

Third, we've announced a change in licensing for Windows Vista Enterprise (and Windows Vista Ultimate if it's under Software Assurance)

Why only under SA for ultimate and Enterprise. If you offered it for Ultimate off the self I'd be more than happy to buy it instead of the lesser versions, mainly to run virtual browser applicances in. Why you ask? Honestly do you think Vista is going to stop the Hackers. Come on! Anyhow I think there

would be a market here. But I'll just get a free applicance from VMware instead, can you say Linux?

[I don't make the licensing rules - I just report them. - mikekol]