InformationWeek: VMware put ESX Server on a weight loss plan to get it down from two gigabytes to 32 megabytes in the just announced, embeddable, 3i version. How did you do that?

Rosenblum: We've typically included a version of Red Hat Linux in ESX Server. That's because the hardware manufacturers put little embedded processors to control the fans and other elements of their servers. They have agents reporting on their operation. They wouldn't write software that would allow those processors to interface to ESX Server, but they had to do it for Linux. So we shipped a full Red Hat operating system as our management console.

InformationWeek: And since you're embedding ESX Server in the hardware, you could throw out the console?

Rosenblum: Yes, now we're in a much better position. The footprint is smaller, the security exposure is smaller, we don't have to patch for security issues. We get rid of two gigabytes of code. You no longer have to wait for Linux to boot up. It [ESX Server 3i] starts relatively fast.

InformationWeek: Will virtualization as a feature of the hardware become the dominant way of distributing hypervisors, over, say, virtualization as a feature of the operating system?

Rosenblum: That's been my vision of how virtualization could be deployed in the industry. With multi-core processors, it would be weird not to. There'd be too few workloads that could run on them [and take advantage of all the processing power] without virtualization.

InformationWeek: What's wrong with distributing virtualization as part of the operating system?

Rosenblum: The existing modern operating systems will want to stay in their privileged position and will bundle [virtualization] into the operating system. I think, technically, the right way to do it is the way we're doing in ESX Server 3i, as an embedded feature in the hardware.

InformationWeek: But won't Microsoft also be making virtualization ubiquitous as it includes Viridian in Windows Server 2008 next year?

Rosenblum: I never want to underestimate a competitor like Microsoft. But I'm pretty confident we'll be technically better than them. Sometimes, I think that's not enough [laughs]. But you can see from the number of partners we have that we're trying to build an ecosystem around VMware so we can compete with someone as powerful as Microsoft. We've got the hardware vendors around us. You can probably assume they learned something from their previous experience with Microsoft.

InformationWeek: Why are you skeptical of the modern operating system surviving in its present form?

Rosenblum: Modern operating systems have gone down the road of trying to do all things for all applications. They've bloated themselves up.

InformationWeek: VMware has 600 virtual appliances in its marketplace. Will virtual appliances become a dominant way of distributing software?

Rosenblum: I do believe virtual appliances will be the predominate way we distribute software. Once you get a package that just works, you don't need to go through an install and configure it. That just works a lot better. As virtualization becomes ubiquitous, you'll see a lot more virtual appliances.

InformationWeek: How was VMware affected by its successful IPO?

Rosenblum: The IPO brought in an incredible group of people. Let's face it. We need as many high-quality people as we can get. Suddenly, we're a big stable company. The IPO was meant to let us retain the people we have and brought in amazingly good people. It served that purpose.