If it works.... the good news is the bad news is the good news...
@Robert Amleth: Yes, I think so, too; VMWare DO "want to own everything." And so do Microsoft. And so do most of the "bigs"; they don't know how to grow in an open, openly-competitive market ecosystem. VMWare, at least, have told themselves that they do know - and that is the root cause of the "comeback".
Thinking about the "one-throat-to-choke" "nirvana"... experienced managers with an appreciation for history may recall that, in the times when Microsoft and, earlier, IBM big iron ruled their respective worlds, the throat that was most often and severely choked was the customer's. Do we as an industry really want to go down that road again? One definition of insanity, after all, is repeating the same actions over and over, in the firm expectation of differing results...