Another former Softie joins VMware

A year ago when I wrote that former Microsoft manager -- and current VMware CEO --  Paul Maritz was getting the old band back together, I had no idea how many members would end up reuniting.

Maritz is now CEO of VMware. Another former Softie, Charles Fitzgerald, is now Vice President of Product Management with Decho, a startup that encompasses Maritz's former Pi Corp. And on January 6, VMware announced yet another former member of the old Microsoft gang -- Tod Neilsen -- is now Chief Operating Officer with VMware.

Nielsen's been around. Most recently he was President and CEO of Borland Software. Before that, he did stints with Oracle and BEA Systems. (BEA bought his company Crossgain -- a company which put him in Microsoft's non-compete crosshairs for a bit.) At Microsoft, where he worked for 12 years, Neilsen held a number of positions, including, according to the VMWare press release, general manager of database and developer tools, vice president of developer tools, and, vice president of Microsoft’s platform group.

Maritz, Fitzgerald and Neilsen all figured (to varying degrees of public prominence) in Microsoft's antitrust trial in the U.S. in the late 1990s.

What do you see happening in the Microsoft vs. VMware virtualization contest in the coming year? Will a bunch of former Softies be the right crew to keep VMware ahead of Microsoft in the virtalization space?