i did end up fooling around with virtualbox. not bad at all. actually opens vmdk files with slight modifications. has snapshot capability and so on.

fills a nice gap too because vm server, though it can be ran on a workstation, isn’t really meant for that. and vm player allows no snapshots or creation of vms. maybe after a few more versions of virtualbox come out i’ll consider moving to it completely.

stumbled across a website – osalt.com. it lists open source alternatives to popular commercial products. now this has been a goal of mine for quite a few years. i chose 7zip for winrar, filezilla for cuteftp, audacity for cooledit/audition, and so on. i mean anything i use for basic productivity has an open source alternative. anyways, i’m mentioning this now because i was surprised to see equivalents of software i didn’t really think about…such as crystal reports, ms project, sharepoint, etc. so wow really why couldn’t you run a business off an open source stack.

executives seem to have it in mind that you always have to buy software, otherwise the software must not be useful and/or crap. it’s a mindset that microsoft has somehow conned the business world into believing. and microsoft has succeeded in accomplishing this by fear tactics, aggressive salesmen, and no doubt bullying.

one last thing – standards. and by that i mean open standards, not one vendor’s obviously biased idea of standards. it’s always interesting that the default response to becoming standard compliant is to bend or customize the standard to fit the environment. well, hello! if you are throwing in customizations to match your environment, then you are following some type of bastardization of a standard.

however, it’s probably fairly difficult to follow a standard down to the last detail. and that’s fine…they’re guidelines. but when you stray too far away you’re an abomination.

i spend a lot of time on my weekends just reading up on stuff lately. for some reason i decided to revisit IRC and randomly joined a linux channel, started talking with some nice people. they pointed me to a few podcasts out there that they had done, and a live one that was done that very night. the whole experience was pretty interesting and i’m considering making my own podcast if i can find an appropriate topic to talk about…

(interesting) new features of virtual center 2.5 and esx 3.5:
locking down management abilities to virtual center and not esx hosts
plugins to vc (a converter plugin is available?)
update manager
consolidation wizard
and of course storage vmotion (relies on fibre channel SAN)

other items of note: there appears to be a native netbackup module for esx. also i just now learned about ESXi…sweet.

still reading softwar, larry ellison makes another good point. during meetings when no one has any facts the overpowering personality wins. but when someone has crystal clear facts there’s nothing to really argue over.

i’ve been reading larry ellison’s sort of biography – “softwar”. it’s quite good and i have to give credit to ellison for having the insight to not believe in the traditional client/server model. what’s meant by this is – some file/print servers in the background with fat clients rolled out to the public. i agree with him completely on that concept. that model is a failure. why? well look at the modern era where in a workplace PCs are literally everywhere. an organization can easily have over a thousand PCs to manage. important software has crept out onto the desktops away from centralized server management. and malware is a epidemic on windows PCs.

so in other words it’s out of control. managing this type of environment involves a lot of manual legwork and more personnel. it’s really ridiculous when you think about it. you have to invest a fortune in anti-virus/anti-spyware solutions to protect fat clients. you have to lock down local policies also for protection (and thus almost make the PC more thin client-like). so how does this situation get rectified?

as ellison says basically everything that’s possible to turn into a web-app, do so. agreed. what’s next? with virtualization in the data center becoming a proven concept. i think computing will start shifting back to a thin client-ish model. units that tie into a vmware infrastructure like the panologic stuff are the future. that equipment is definitely a step in the right direction. one step further though, incorporate linux. linux will be around no matter what. there is no vendor lockin.

i seriously think there will be a shift at some point. the 90’s thru mid 2000’s demonstrated IT growth and spending that seemed unstoppable. now i think people will start becoming somewhat conservative again.

totally unrelated but another good point made by ellison. people’s natural resistance to change, and often for no good reason. i’ve experienced this myself…trying to introduce a new product or concept..and all you get is moans and complaints. you’re basically all alone in an attempt to actually improve things. so ellison’s take is..make them write it down on paper. as in the current processes and procedures and why the introduction of something new simply can’t work. people are lazy and probably won’t put any effort into writing such a document, but besides that they will be forced to write down the current procedure. and that no doubt will have the flaws glaring for everyone to see. ellison also mentions don’t let these discussions make it to a meeting. sometimes people can _somehow_ make their point just by tone, body language, and constant whining. even though they aren’t arguing with any real substance. so, something i will remember now…make them put it in writing.