Here comes View 5, in the rich tradition of other sequels that make it to the fifth iteration.

The common thing about all of these 5′s is they are all good enough popcorn movies. You’re not really expecting any great surprises and kind of know what you’re getting.

Now that View 5.0 is official, I can divulge that I was in the View 5 beta program. I really wasn’t blown away by new features or functionality. However, I understand that it makes sense to match vSphere 5 and SRM 5, which really are a full version updates with new useful features. There are some new things in View 5, but mostly it feels pretty familiar. Just open a soft drink to wash it down while you’re letting it install.

VMware knows View 5 just has to be good enough – not great. As long as VMware dominates the virtualized server infrastructure, the competition is going to have to offer an incredibly simple-to-use alternative. It is not unusual that companies put View and XenDesktop versus each other in proofs of concepts, but they often decide to go with View because it is good enough, and they already feel like they know the VMware stack.

View 5 shows VMware’s has grown into the company that seems to be taking the Microsoft approach when it comes to virtual desktops. There is no need to be too cutting-edge or inventive. They just need to focus on the features that are absolutely necessary to keep the series going. They have enough to focus on with all the challenges to get the cloud infrastructure and management tools ready.

I guess this is why Paul Maritz spent all of 15 seconds in the VMworld keynote announcing that View 5 is released. No need to get very excited about a product with a built-in audience that will use it because it is good enough.