One more Post: MS App-V 4.5 RTMs. Why App-V is missing the point

Microsoft and EMC/VMware are both missing the point.  Not by a little, but by a HUGE margin.  Application Virtualization is not "taking off" because these vendors are still holding the carrot too high for most of us to jump.

VMware has kept ThinApp pricing too high for anyone but large enterprises to afford.  Microsoft has hog-tied SoftGrid-now-AppV to Software Assurance.  Net result:  Unless you have budgets falling out of your butt crack as you walk, you're not likely going to reach for this cool technology anytime soon.

Stupid.   Dumb.  Idiotic.

This is when Maritz should pull a fast one and give ThinApp away for Free.  Yes.  Free.  They could split it into two versions if they wanted, maybe a "Light" or "Express" and a regular or "Enterprise" or whatever the dope-smoking marketing goons concoct.  Regardless, both VMware and Microsoft are holding this technology hostage and letting it die on the vine before the masses have a chance to pluck it for their own uses.

If you've wasted any time at all packaging software with Wise or InstallShield, or written God-awful "deployment automation" scripts, you need to check this technology out.  Really.  I've been trained on SoftGrid (MDOP also) and used Thinstall for a while and yet cannot find any major customers eager to roll either one into production.  Not because it's "radical" or "unproven", but because they're ridiculously expensive.  They are.  And there's no reason for it.  None.  Show me one tangible process for deriving a value for software and I'll show you someone who needs to stop drinking.

Haven't these big vendors learned anything?  Give it (the product) away and then sell add-on or peripheral services around it.   Duh.  I'm just flabbergasted at this situation and how utterly stupid it is.

Oh well.  No more posts from me for a while.  I have work to do.