Microsoft had a lot to say, yesterday, at a one-day press-and-analyst blowout that was more a marketing rally than a technology announcement.

Most of it was a repeat of what it had said in the past: our virtualization technology is as good as VMware's, it's a lot cheaper, and all the important pieces are either already shipping, are about to ship, or are developing fast enough we're happy to talk about it as if it had already shipped.

Microsoft announced Hyper-V would be available free, that Virtual Machine Manager 2008 would be available within 30 days, that VMM 2008 would be able to manage VMware servers, and that live migration was coming to Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V.

What it didn't talk about was caveats like licensing that's more restrictive than it needs to be. Microsoft has no intention of loosening up its rules so the OS in a virtual machine can be licensed on its own so that it can move from one server to another without requiring that both the source and destination server be licensed (separately).

That's not an issue if you buy the top-level, most expensive, Data Center license, Microsofties say. It is an issue if buy cheaper editions; they don't talk about that.

They also don't talk about live migration, except to say it isn't an issue according to what most of their Hyper-V users say.

That's great, and the Hyper-V users are perfectly sincere, and perfectly aware of the trade-offs (I've talked to them, too).

But taking their testimony to mean live migration isn't important to anyone is like asking fat guys in elephant hats on the floor at the Republican National Convention how good a VP Sarah Palin would be.

Your results would be clear enough, but you probably shouldn't assume they represent a cross-section of American voters.

Hyper-V users use Hyper-V because live migration isn't critical to them, not because they've forgiven Microsoft for not having it. If live migration is critical to you, you're not going to sign up as an early adopter for Microsoft. You're going to be in the other party's tent trying on donkey hats.

If live migration is important to you, you're stuck with VMware, at least until the next major version of Windows Server 2008 ships, probably in 2010, when Microsoft will also be able to do live migration. Until then it's not important and customers don't want it anyway.

Microsoft also talked a lot about its management tools. Systems Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, which will ship within 30 days, Microsoft promises , are the equal of anything at VMware, Microsoft SVP Bob Muglia told me in a phone interview before the event.