Vista Basic and Vista Home Premium's virtualisation ban lifted
Very good news this past week for Mac and Linux owners wanting to run Windows Vista as Microsoft finally lifted the ban on using Windows Vista Basic or Home Premium editions on virtualised environments.
Since the launch of Vista over a year ago, Microsoft has been accused of attempting to cash in by allowing only Business and Ultimate editions of Vista to be used in virtualised environments. The software giant was expected to lift the ban last year but decided against doing so at the very last minute. The ban was finally lifted last week and became effective immediately.
Microsoft's senior VP of server and tools Bob Muglia said:
"Very few customers are able to reap the benefits of virtualisation today. We estimate that less than 5 percent of companies are utilising virtualisation technology because it is simply too cost-prohibitive and complex. We believe Microsoft's comprehensive approach - from desktop to datacenter - is unique to the industry by delivering solutions that address virtualisation at the hardware, application and management levels. Our approach is not only one of the most comprehensive in the market today, but we believe it is also one of the most economical. This combination brings a big strategic advantage and cost savings to customers."
To highlight the changes, Microsoft's software license terms have been updated.
