Microsoft takes VMWare head on

Microsoft has recently unveiled how they view virtualization, and how they plan to make virtualization grow in the near future. More specifically, they’ve talked about what their primary goal is – to oust VMWare from its comfortable 80% or higher lead in virtualization deployments.

It seems Microsoft’s primary intention is not to directly compete with what VMWare is offering, and instead take the next “technological step”, moving to a management infrastructure that is both physical and virtual. They put a lot of emphasis on managing virtualization deployments, and see that as more important than the actual implementation. This is definitely true, at least from a business standpoint, as one of the goals of any virtualization suite is to become seamless.

If anyone knows how to operate a monopoly and control large market share, that would be Microsoft. VMWare could be in danger here. Even with a technically superior product, they might find themselves in a serious hurt if they do not react to Microsoft’s plans, on top of several other vendors like Sun and Cisco competing for VMWare’s current domain as well.

Seagate preparing enterprise SSDs for 2009

Seagate is getting ready to finally release an SSD product but not before next year. Apparently the company will initially aim at the enterprise market specifically, with the drives designed for use in servers.

Seagate is a latecomer in the SSD world, falling behind numerous companies, including Intel. Part of their delay was voiced by their CEO, Bill Watkins, who outright attacked SSDs as they exist today and claimed they were a minor part of the storage market. Seagate’s decision to both attack and embrace the SSD market has been an interesting one to watch.

Shortly after claiming that if SSD became popular, they would sue certain SSD makers, Seagate remained true to their word and sued STEC. Both companies remain in court today as STEC tries to get Seagate’s technology patents revolving around SSD declared as invalid.

Windows 7 to tone down UAC prompts

One of the biggest complaints Windows Vista receives is focused around the UAC (User Account Control). While touted as a security measure that would prevent a system from becoming compromised, most users simply see it as an annoyance, having to confirm even seemingly simple changes made to the system.

Microsoft has received a ton of feedback in this regard, and they seem to be preparing a simplified version of UAC for Windows 7 that will try to prompt the user less often.

Although early on Vista’s life cycle many of the UAC triggers were prompted by software not yet written with the OS security features in mind, Microsoft admits they could have done better. According to some stats gathered by the software giant, one out of three Vista “sessions” create at least one UAC prompt. Not a huge deal when the machine is first being setup, but after it has been in use it tends to get in the way. Microsoft talks further details on its internal affairs with the upcoming OS on its Engineering Windows 7 blog.

Wal-Mart rescinds decision to shut down DRM servers

At the end of last month, Wal-Mart announced they would shut down their DRM servers. That would have resulted in anyone who purchased DRM-laden music from Wal-Mart stuck with a worthless purchase down the road unless they burn their music to a CD beforehand. The decision was a reminder of how dangerous DRM can be for the consumer, and how it truly is a method of “renting” content rather than “buying” it. The company has wised up in recent days and now plans to offer DRM-free music on its online store, but that won’t help those who jumped on the service when it was first offered.

Naturally this caused a lot of upset among those Wal-Mart customers who felt their paid-for music was in danger. They protested, and as a result the retail chain will be extending the server shut-down deadline. Wal-Mart hasn’t given a specific date – only mentioning that they will maintain and operate these servers for the foreseeable future.

Mozilla freezes feature set for Firefox 3.1

Mozilla has pushed back the release of Firefox 3.1 by several weeks in order to build into it a number of features that include a highly touted ‘private browsing’ mode, further optimizations on its JavaScript engine and improvements on how the browser’s address bar works.

With this timetable the first beta of Firefox 3.1 is expected to see the light as soon as next week, while a more feature complete Beta 2 is expected on early November. Mozilla anticipates to have the final version out by the end of the year or early 2009, with a set date being announced later on.

Firefox remains the second most used browser worldwide with ~18% market share. By comparison Internet Explorer dominates at large with about 76,3% of users and Safari comes in at third with 3,8%.

Circuit City in trouble, going the way of the dodo?

After Blockbuster rescinded its $1.3 billion offer for taking over Circuit City last July, things haven’t gone anywhere but downhill for the retail chain. Last quarter the company reported losses for $239 million, it has also suffered from the loss of its CEO and a severe impact on its stock price plummeting from a high $9.4 a year ago to $0.43 this week.

With the current financial crisis expected to take its toll on companies that rely heavily on credit or do not have enough liquid assets, Circuit City is one of those retailers expected to collapse by the end of the year.

Without a doubt Circuit City’s dramatic decline in market capitalization looks astounding but other tech giants are also suffering from the stock market pain as summarized by a table at TG Daily.

Nvidia, for example, is down 81% from a year ago, Motorola -76%, RIM -60%, and even stock stars from the past few years like Apple and Google are both down 56%. Could consolidation extend to the technology industry, many analysts seem to think so considering the relative bargain some stocks are selling for right now.