Thursday, May 15, 2008

Happy new version, VMware!

Some guys are so pissed of with many VMWare version that they started making fun about it. One of the guy Schley Andrew Kutz wrote on servervirtual blog
Hey VMware, it’s me again. I know you’re probably still mad at me for last week. Well, I’m going out on a very public limb here to apologize for something that I did.
I’m sorry that I forgot your version.
Yes, you let everyone know that your version was coming up, but I forgot to create a calendar reminder for it and I just plain forgot. You know how that goes, right?
Now I don’t mind owning up to my bad memory, but here’s the thing – you have sooo many versions! Most people just have one version per year, you have at least five. There’s the version for VMware Infrastructure (VI), currently at 3.5. ESX is already 3.5 versions old, and ESX 3i has its own version too. Then there is the VirtualCenter and the VI client at 2.5. VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) is straggling behind at 1.1. I think the VI SDK is also 2.5 versions old, but with the VI Perl Toolkit at version 1.5 and the VI Toolkit (for Windows) in beta, it is hard to keep up.
VMware, your enterprise portfolio has expanded far beyond simply ESX, and none but two of the versions align. Therefore, with so many available products, it is fast becoming impossible to understand which version works with which. You should release minor point releases between major revisions in order to maintain a consistent major version number for your enterprise product offerings.
I know you’re a busy company, and it is hard to get everybody together on one day out of the year to celebrate your version, but I beg you, please try. Except for those closest to you, it is getting extremely difficult to remember your versions, or figure out which version we actually mean. Here’s an idea: for the rest of the year, skip all of your versions and then start over your versions all at once on a single day. Maybe even at VMworld? It can be your special version day. I’ll even bring party hats and cake (if you will invite me.)


VMware Infrastructure 4 (VI4) can include:

- ESX 4

- ESX 4i

- VirtualCenter 4

- VI SDK 4

- VI Perl 4

- VI Toolkit (for Windows) 4

- VCB 4
I know it will throw people off at first; your customers might think they missed some of your versions. However, I think in the end you’ll have a lot of people thanking you.
I feel real bad about missing your version, and I don’t want to let the announcement pass me by again. Maybe I should use Outlook?

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