So there’s this software – Xen – which is an open-source virtualization solution embraced by the free unixes and linuxes as a non-proprietary solution for running multiple operating systems as “guests” under a “parent” installation.

In short: an open-source competitor to EMC’s VMware.

Some bright spark at XenSource – the administrators of Xen – has decided that people who implement the Xen functionality and hooks in their operating system should not be allowed to use the Xen name anywhere without payment of a fee:

XenSource, the commercial entity founded by of the University of Cambridge researchers that developed the open source hypervisor, made the Xen community aware of their trademark policy this fall, and, so far, at least one vendor — Virtual Iron Software Inc. — has agreed to stop using the name.

“I’ve been asked by XenSource’s lawyers not to say the word that begins with ‘X’ since they own that word outright,” said Mike Grandinetti, chief marketing officer at Virtual Iron Software in Lowell, Mass.

According to Grandinetti, XenSource’s lawyers “dropped a bomb” on the Xen community last month when they announced that “you’ll have to pay to certify your apps against our test suite, and you’ll have to pay us some more to use the name,” Grandinetti said.

Simon Crosby, CTO at XenSource, disputes the notion that XenSource asked Virtual Iron to pay for the right to the Xen brand. “It’s not a money-making thing whatsoever,” Crosby said. “It’s about protecting the community.”

The “community” in this case refers to the list of Linux distribution vendors and XenSource partners that have rendered “Faithful Implementations” of the Xen hypervisor, as maintained by XenSource at xenbits.xensource.com. Those vendors, according to XenSource include, but are not limited to, Novell, Sun and Red Hat.

Go read the story – there’s two sides to it as ever, but damn, way to screw yourselves over guys.

If you want money then sure, launch a certification programme with a virtual gong for passing a commercial grade test suite, but turning yourselves into “software which must not be named” is no way to build a userbase.

Compare yourselves to Dolby Laboratories, or even the Compact Disc logo, if you want to see what you’re missing out upon.

Disclosure: I work for Sun, who is impacted by the above, but I still think it stands out as suicidally idiotic and dumb thing to do. You might as well tattoo “please please ream me with FUD and let me fade into ignominy” on the forehead of your CTO.

It would save time.