Coke vs Pepsi...

I reported on the benefits of virtualization long ago when I was exploring running Windows on a Mac by using the Parallels solution. Recently, another long-time player in virtualization, VMWare, belonging to EMC (a 'leader' in infrastructure solutions), came up with a similar solution to Parallels, called Fusion.

I have tried both solutions running Windows XP and Vista on my latest PowerBook and this got me wondering... whatever has happened to the copyrights of software product functionality and user interfaces? These two products are quasi identical. Even their application icons look similar (see picture). Install and learn one of the two, you got full knowledge on how to use the other one. On top of that you pay exactly the same amount to buy each one of them: 80 bucks! So, what's the point? What's the differentiation? I mean, even for useless geeks it's hard to say... let alone for casual users like you and me... Apple said 'We love Parallels' before Fusion was out and I am sure they'll come out to make a similar statement for VMWare too. The latter's parent, EMC, a big shot as a global IT infrastructure supplier along the likes of CA, BMC, Compuware and BEA, announced a broadly hyped 10% IPO (spinoff) that recently woke up the market (not many of those are happening nowadays in this industry, after the bubble burst 6 years ago). But where is the unique positioning? What happened to real strategic marketing? Is 'me too' the motto of the future?

Parallels (SWSoft really) is a new breed of companies coming from the (Siberian) Cold. it's got an interesting company structure. Their enterpreneur CEO and all R&D Heads are Russians. The heart and soul of the company belongs to the 'Reds'. I always believed Russians would emerge as outstanding performers in all sorts of IT solutions for two reasons: a) they are exceptionally good in Mathematics and Applied Sciences, and b) (I heard that from one of them sometime) they had to be extremely creative with their primitive IT hardware all these years before the fall of the communism in order to make it perform at comparative levels with the west, all for defense purposes of course. In PC terms, they were no-where in the 70ies and 80ies and only started putting their hands on real PCs in the 90ies... remember the technology embargo?

The remaining of the SWSoft Top Management structure has been created from a supply pool of commodity managers from the West (US, UK, whatever) with big ass majors and MBAs from celebrity schools. The Russians needed those to blend in. I admire SWSoft and what they did with Parallels a lot. It's much like Kaspersky, the Anti-Virus dudes. We should watch the new Russian breed a lot in the future. Screw the cold war, who needs wars anyways. Trade and competition, that's all we need!

VMware has a lot more history in providing solutions in the Virtual world but I felt that they were kinda lame for too long. A typical case of a bunch of smart lads sitting amidst a huge corp that only cares for making the quarter and it's 'shareholder value'... innovation is for the small guys who we buy when they're about to go broke. We all learned that from Microsoft and CA and Platinum and Cisco. So, it's probably not a bad idea to spin them off. Big corps are a disaster area for innovation and the bigger they get the worse they become, victims of their own bottomless egos and self deception.

For quite a long time we needed a real good virtualization solution for the Mac and VMware had it all going for themselves but they propably felt 'safe' as they thought they had the know-how monopoly and related patents for leading virtualization. Until the Russians came. That will teach them.

I am sure at the end of the day there will be stupid arguments that will be used against each other. Some neocons salesmen in the US will probably blame Parallels for being run by too many Igors and Ivans. Stick to our boys at home, Sir. Don't trust them Reds, ever!

I read some place that someone compared performance of both products and found Parallels faster. I don't know about that... I didn't see that yet in my own systems. Both seem quite similar to me. Parallels offers the Kaspersky anti-virus for free, VMware has got no AV alternative yet. Paralles is in its Version 3.0, Fusion is just 1.0. I am out of arguments. If I had to bet though, I'll go for the Russians. Reason? Well, for a bunch that came from the cold and only seen the light for less than one generation, they are pretty amazing in their software design. And, God Bless their CEO, they seem to handle the Capitalist system of our Western civilization pretty wonderful. They got a lot of brainware going...

There's another reason I believe in them though. Recent evidence suggests that, except for Apple that we all know, paradigm-shift innovation comes from Europe... I mean the huge stuff, like the Web, Skype and the likes... Europe is a green field for innovation and full of hungry brains. All we need is get rid of the Mandarins and oldtime separatist nationalism drugs that we are bred with from our cradle to the grave, and we got a wonderful new World, just at our doorsteps.