VMWare Chief Chiefly Wrong

In a recent speech, VMWare CEO Paul Maritz raised the rising virtualization rhetoric to a ludicrous level. Among his statements was this gem:

"By and large, people are no longer writing traditional Windows applications," said Maritz. "People are increasingly looking at different ways of writing and provisioning applications."

This statement should both surprise and disappoint DevX's huge developer audience—and not just those writing applications for Windows. Maritz went on to say that "we are going to see the traditional operating system, in fact, deconstructed and made more customized and relevant to the particular application framework."

While there's no doubt that other application types running on other OSs are more common than they once were, the statement that "people are no longer writing traditional Windows applications" simply indicates how far out of touch Maritz is with the mainstream efforts of working developers.

The truth is that more Windows applications are being written than ever before: Office automation programs, web applications, games, database applications, communication, embedded, robotics, and mobile applications, and yes—standard desktop/laptop business applications. In any case, Windows has already been "deconstructed" in the process of expanding Windows programming into other devices. Again, it's not just Windows; there are also more desktop, mobile, and web applications being written for other OSs, most of which were adapted from existing OSs specifically for those types of devices.

Virtualization definitely has an important and a growing place in the IT stack—but that place is supplemental to existing OSs, not a substitute for them.