This explains a bit the churlishness on Microsoft's part where VMware support is concerned. More than one enterprise customer has complained about Microsoft's indifference (or reliance on end-user licensing boilerplate) for not supporting VMware on its servers or apps. They've struck deals with nearly all the smaller virtualization vendors. I guess there's no need to hand your major competitor the keys to your customers' servers.
That's why I'd love to see Microsoft actually do something really stellar here. You know, something to put VMware on notice and stir the competitive spirits of both HP and Sun. But I'm not optimistic. Internal critics are ignored or overriden and there seems to be a lot of settling for less at Microsoft -- the cost, we're told, of being the world's most widely used software. Still, here's a chance for the company to do something cool, smart, and excellent. We'll know this summer how passionately they embraced this virtual opportunity.