Paul, Welcome to VMWare

License validation code errors that crash hundreds (maybe thousands) of production VM infrastructure servers are about as bush league as a software company can get. VMware is really lucky they have a generally excellent reputation, so they will survive this with mostly some egg on their face. But the Hyper-V folks at Redmond are probably high-fiving each other at the coffee station several times a day this week. It is always wise to remember that when Microsoft starts bundling workalike software in their standard product line, history shows that a vendor's lease on life can proceed rapidly to expiration. (And to think, we're just learning to implement VMware VM's in our testing lab prior to becoming a VMware reseller - yikes! I think we just dodged another IT bullet.)

Any software company will have multiple major blowups like this one, but I do not remember anybody who dealt with the situation as well as VMWare did (remember SONY rootkit fiasko?).

VMWare faced the wind, came out with the truth right away, kept customers updated on the situation multiple times a day, and I believe they mobilized all their resources to rectify the issue in the least amount of time.

Let's give credit where it's due.

Where do I go from here? We have just committed to installing VMWare this Fall.

I am sure we will still move forward with VMWare, but the real issue at hand is the agressive behavior to force customers to act as they see fit.

The time-bomb was meant to discourage costomers. That is a mistake waiting to happen...need I say more?