Editor's choice: VMware DSX Virtual Server 3
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In summary, both are excellent products. VMware's product is quite idiot-proof with its various wizards while Microsoft's requires more effort during initial VM creation.
Both support a wide range of guest VMs, although Microsoft only provides technical support for Windows guest OSes, while VMware is far more liberal, covering Linux, Netware, and many others.
Microsoft Virtual Server can only exist on a Windows 2003 Server or XP Pro Host while GSX Server is far more cosmopolitan with host software for many flavours of Linux.
In general terms we found GSX Server VMs to have higher performance than Microsoft's Virtual Server VMs, but in some cases Virtual Server has better VM control such as CPU resource allocation; you have to step up to VMware's ESX Server to gain this functionality. But that itself is an important point; if you do require additional functionality above and beyond GSX server, it's available in ESX Server.
Unless Microsoft was literally (not virtually) giving away Virtual Server 2005, we wouldn't reassess our decision to give the Editor's Choice to VMware's GSX Server 3.
This article was first published in Technology & Business magazine.
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