Fine. So be it. Attack ads and negative marketing go on in politics and in business not because they amuse the press or keep the marketers occupied; they go on because they work.

Neither VMware nor Microsoft is going to sway the decision of a customer who's confident the competitor's technology fits his or her needs just right. Neither will convince a user who's decided to add just a little of the competitor's product into a virtual infrastructure dominated by the other company's technology, either.

They will influence the vast majority that sit somewhere in the middle, though, looking for the benefits of virtualization, but not completely sure whose marketing and test results and technical white papers to believe.

That's why Microsoft apparatchiks were handing out flyers and why VMware had them kicked off the premises for it.

It's too bad, really, that this hype war continues to muddy details important to customers, including licensing, security and management.

Not for Microsoft and VMware, who get to rev up their salesforces and partners with us-versus-them team-building and competitive marketing.

It's too bad for the customers who want to focus on making IT serve the needs of their own business, not making their IT budgets the prize in a battle for supremacy of the sandbox.