Monday, September 26, 2005 - Posts

Virtual Server and TechNet Plus

OK, so I'm still going through 5,000,000 emails after 2 weeks away. So after me just posting about MSDN subscribers getting Virtual Server 2005 included in their subscription from December this year, I've now found more info that TechNet Plus subscribers are going to be getting Virtual Server 2005 (Standard Edition) included in that subscription from November this year. Great news.
posted Monday, September 26, 2005 11:09 AM by jhoward with 2 Comments

Virtual Server and MSDN

Not quite as applicable for IT Pro's, but I know many of you do have an MSDN subscription as well as a TechNet subscription. I can't remember exactly when, but Virtual Server used to be included in MSDN through the subscription download for a limited time only, and I think it was around March this year that the download was pulled. The good news is that it's back, and this time in the box.

Shipment will start this december, and to find out which version you'll get, here's the info:

MSVS2005 Standard is in MSDN Enterprise and Universal Subscriptions for dev, test and demo use rights.
MSVS2005 Standard will be included in MSDN Premium Subscriptions for all editions of Visual Studio 2005 Team System (VSTS)
MSVS2005 Enterprise will be included with Visual Studio Team Suite and Visual Studio Team Suite with MSDN Premium Subscription.

My understanding is that this time, it isn't a limited time download - it should be there for the foreseeable future.

As for TechNet.... I'll have a chase up on that, but I've also just realised that my own subscription has run out. Time to renew it....

posted Monday, September 26, 2005 10:36 AM by jhoward with 0 Comments

Dilemmas, Upgrades and Decisions.

<Holiday Thoughts>
Returning back to work mode. Holiday season for me now finally over this year (I've been whizzing, well as much as you can at 3 knots max, up and down the canal networks in the UK). Fantastic time, can't wait to go again. While at the helm though, I've pondered a few times about what to use for my replacement virtual dev/test environment, both for work and home. The trouble is, my work laptop at the end of the day just doesn't have it when you want to push virtualisation - generally most are limited to 2GB Ram and slow-ish disks, and the home budget is, well - you can probably guess. I'd consider building my own shuttle box with a RAID disk subsystem and a couple of dual-core 64-bit processors thrown in. Trouble is, they max out at 2GB too from what I can see, and I need something still reasonably portable. It would do, but I'm still going to need more RAM mid to longer term. But, do I just get one now and deal with the future later? Speaking of the future, what about the forthcoming Pacifica/VT processor? Now they will be seriously cool (with a price tag to match I expect initially). So, what I need to do is find some nice friendly contacts internally here at Microsoft who can put me in touch with one of the processor manufacturers or OEM builders who would like a machine with a stack of ram, a couple of dual-core processors with the additional virtualisation instructions, and a few fast disks "evaluated" on a semi-permanent basis :-). Nah! Even working at Microsoft, I don't think I'll get that lucky. Never mind, I'll just have to make my own decision the old fashion way for the work machine - value for money. For home, the decisions probably already made for me - same old kit for a while....
</Holiday Thoughts>

posted Monday, September 26, 2005 5:32 AM by jhoward with 4 Comments