Re: Interview prep: Sanya Rao

[Stefano Stabellini <sstabellini@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 19 Aug 2022, George Dunlap wrote:
> Hey all,
> 
> I received a request for an interview regarding Xen’s take on the Broadcom 
> VMWare acquisition.  I’ve done some “prep work”, saying what my *real* 
> opinions are, and then what I might want to say to her in the interview; you 
> can find her initial query and my thoughts here:
> 
> https://cryptpad.fr/pad/#/2/pad/view/4MZyoCT8s--az3Koo5QBPCOI3QHAGIKEceXQosly43I/
> 
> I accepted the interview in particular in the hopes that I could put that 
> sound byte in there about open source meaning that if one company abandons a 
> large tranche of customers, another company can sweep in and cover them.
> 
> The interview is Monday evening, 9pm BST.  I’d appreciate any feedback — 
> particularly anything you think I shouldn’t say; but anything you think I 
> should add as well.

I would not say "they're purposely stepping back from the vast majority
of the market". The quote claims that VMWare will "focus on the 600
largest software customers". It is not the same thing. Focus on the
biggest customers doesn't necessarily mean that they are going to step
back from the smaller customers. It just means that their resource
spending is going to be mostly targeted at the biggest customers. It is
not good news for small/mid size customers but it is not necessarily
terrible. Also, this kind of strategies change all the time.

I would not say/mention:
- KVM
- assumption/guesses about what Broadcom is going to do, especially in
  regard to leaving customers behind

I would limit myself to the following points:
- Xen Project has not plans to engage with the FTC
- Xen Project is a very solid alternative to VMWare
- If I were a VMWare customer today I would find comfort in knowing
  that whatever happens to VMWare, the Xen Community has my back
- Xen Project is an Open Source project and industry consortium with
  multiple companies behind it, as such it is less susceptible to market
  volatility