Today I installed and played aroud with Altiris Software Virtualization Solution (SVS) 2.0 Personal. This version is free for personal use and gives you a good impression of the underlying technique that Altiris uses for 'virtualization'.
I quote the word virtualization on purpose, because Altiris actually creates a exportable sandbox of the application. All registry keys/values and files are redirected to a hidden (for users) key in the registry and folder on the file system. Both are named fslrdr.Due to the fact that an application is sandboxed, the application becomes portable. Exchange of applications is made pretty easy this way.
Imagine… A software vendor provides you with a single .vsa file that you only have to activate for use. No installation is required. That's cool. Your system remains clean.
Compared to Softricity SoftGrid, SVS 'just' redirects. The application itself runs in shared memory and still might conflict on object level with other applications of different versions of the same application. By wisely choosing the installation folders, this can be prevented.
SoftGrid also provides a way of streaming only used execution code. SVS still depends on copying the entire sandbox before launching the application. This means that SVS is better described as an application isolation solution in stead of virtualization. This probably sound familiar for Citrix guys ;-).
Another important difference between SoftGrid and SVS is access control. SoftGrid provides access control for their virtual applications. SVS does not (yet) have this feature.
Altiris Juice is the SVS community that offers a lot of information, some pre-packaged applications and of course the software itself.
SVSDownloads.com offers even more pre-packaged applications and related software.
