Virtualization giant VMware this week announced a new open source version of its virtual desktop software, dubbed VMware View Open Client. Licensed under the LGPL, the open source virtual desktop software and its source code will be available, primarily to VMware partners, to spur development of supporting virtual desktop software.

While virtual desktop, whereby virtualization is used to create virtual instances and thin clients in place of traditional desktop machines, is still fairly new in the enterprise, we’ve been wondering when virtualization would sway back to open source for some time.

We see the wisdom in providing the View source code to spur more thin-client desktop offerings that are based on VMware’s software, but we also see competitive forces prompting the move.

VMware’s biggest competitor Citrix, for example, recently highlighted its collaboration with Intel on new hypervisor technology and Project Independence, which is intended to streamline and simplify virtual desktop deployment.

Let’s also not forget Red Hat’s relatively recent entry into the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) game as well, with the company’s $107m purchase of KVM virtualization player Qumranet. We’ll note here that prominent among VMware View Open Client’s features is a Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Thin Client Add-On RPM package and command line interface.

There’s no doubt VDI competition is heating up and it seems the players are, wisely, looking to open source and community effects to help build up their offerings and followings. Once again, customers truly stand to benefit as vendors vie for openness and break down the barriers that bring lock-in.