I have used Virtual PC for quite some time. I'm really into how easy it is to use. It used to be made by Connectix. Microsoft was really cool and bought them so that they could compete with VMWare.
Microsoft re-branded Virtual PC, replacing all the Connectix graphics with their own. The application maintained its relatively simple and easy to use interface. It was nice.
Microsoft used the virtual machine technology to create Microsoft Virtual Server. I had never used it or really even knew what it was. But I knew it was made to compete with VMWare's similar product.
So a few months ago I read that Microsoft was giving away a free version of their Virtual Server application. I thought… RIGHT ON! How cool is this? Virtual PC improved and free!
I downloaded the application and ran the installer.
The first thing it says is “This program requires Internet Information Services”. I thought ‘it must be lying'. I just knew that it was bullshit. I was so sure that it must be part of some auxiliary feature that no one would use, or at least that I wouldn't use. So I click the ignore button or whatever and it keeps going.
It finally finishes and I go into the start menu looking for something to run like I don't know… “Microsoft Virtual Server 2006” or whatever. Nothing. NOTHING! I thought “maybe I clicked past some “you need to restart” box and that Microsoft cant write installers worth shit so it would actually finish installing when I rebooted. So I rebooted.
Windows came back up, started like normal. I went into the start menu again, and still nothing. I dicked around for like 20 minutes looking for an EXE or something. I couldn't find a single exe besides the uninstaller. It was insane!
I opened up the documentation looking for the slightest clue as to how the installer must have failed. After looking through, I figured it out!
Apparently the entire application is driven over a web interface! INGENIOUS! The reason it wouldn't work is because A: I was looking for … get this… an application. And B: I don't have IIS installed!
Stupid me. I ignored the warning that it required IIS, and it still let me install even though I didn't have it. Stupid me. I assumed that installing an application would install an application. Stupid me. I thought that Microsoft couldn't completely ruin a good application.
Let's think about the Microsoft development process now. Why make an application into a webpage? Is a web page really the best platform for a Virtual Machine manager? Honestly. HTTP… I can't think of any way you could use hypertext to help improve a virtual machine interface. So obviously IIS is REQUIRED for one to use Virtual Server. There is absolutely no way to use Virtual Server without IIS. Why would it let you continue installing it if there is absolutely no way for it to work? HTTP? WHAT THE @#*!
Any way, I uninstalled it as soon as I could. What a complete waist of time. Microsoft should have saved me the trouble and put across the Virtual Server webpage “This isn't actually an entire application. This is a dll that uses IIS to run.” Thanks Microsoft!