Broadcom has select
VMware Software (PC/Mac/Linux Download) for
Free for Personal Use when you log in to your account (
free to register).
Thanks to Community Member
ccsicecoke for posting this deal.
Available: - VMware Desktop Hypervisor products Fusion and Workstation are used by millions of people every day to run virtual machines on their Windows, Linux and Mac computers. They give users the ability to quickly and easily build "local virtual" environments to install other operating systems, learn about technology, build and test software, complex systems, browsers, apps, games, and more.
- Refer to the original post & forum comments for additional details & discussion.
- See VMware's blog post for additional information.
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This page has both links.
vSphere is a hypervisor. It's also not free anymore. https://blogs.vmware.co
Then, you can use the link I provided above to get to all the vmware software, locate the vmware workstation pro section there. When you click on it, it will have links to Workstation Pro downloads. There are two download links there for Windows and Linux marked "Free for Personal Use". Click on your link. It will force you to certify you are a resident of the US and that you will not export the software. Once you have done that, you can start the download.
Here is the Workstation Pro 17 blog with download links as well:
https://blogs.vmware.co
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Avoid the hassle, just learn and use Proxmox
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VMware has been anti-customer since 2010. They've been following the EMC model, which is to charge as much as the market will bare. Only go after the high-end customers where money isn't an object.
My company used to deploy VMware ESX and ESXi to small and medium-sized businesses. In 2010, VMware decided to jumble their license costs for some reason that is still unclear, but it seemed to be only to get more money. I was mid-deployment at a client's site when this happened. We told the client our concerns and suggested they switch to a F/LOSS tool, KVM/QEMU for their needs. We looked at the new license costs and saw that annual support was going to double for them. If they needed/wanted any new licenses, those would be 50% more than what they'd already paid. Looked like a money grab as their business disappeared to me.
They had no Linux experience and didn't want to make the switch, so we finished the deployment with ESXi and vSphere.
A year later, at license renewal, they had sticker shock and called us. We migrated them to KVM/QEMU - $0 license costs, $0 maintenance costs. The client sent 2 guys in their IT department to Linux training - 1 week at a time, spread over 3 quarters. This was about the same cost of their VMware licenses the year before Now they do their own support and don't need us anymore. They've switched over 50% of their corporate servers to Linux. Also, $0, just hardware and time. The remaining MS-Windows systems are there because the software the business runs requires it. No Linux alternative for their niche industry. All file, print, VoIP, and backups are on Linux systems. Nearly everything is virtualized.
What shocked them most was that backup software was $0 too. With their VMware deployment, it was $1000 for the license and the backups took many hours. With the F/LOSS backup tools, they finished backing up all their servers in less than 1 hour nightly and were able to backup key directories on end-user's workstations too. These were all "pulled" versioned backups, so the clients don't have direct access to the backup storage, which is better for malware/cryptoware recovery.
Anyway, it's a trap. Depending on the OS you have, there are less evil options than stuff from VMware.
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Of course, there are F/LOSS enterprise-ready, tools based on QEMU/KVM which blow away all of these without the license costs.
Beware that while parts of VirtualBox are F/LOSS, the guest additions most definitely are not. Read the license agreement if you use it outside your home. You may be setting up your company for Oracle to come knocking for their money. They have other places.
I was able to play Lethal Company via VMware on my M2 Pro mini but it would often crash or have odd behaviors.
Macgaming on Reddit is a helpful community for tips and tricks.
Avoid the hassle, just learn and use Proxmox
Look up Proxmox.
XCP-NG is a lot closer (with Xen Orchestra) but both of those solutions require a lot more fuss than ESXi. If you're not a Linux expert, get ready for some learning.
Reason we were told no bonuses this year
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Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank D15AV0W3D
You can't treat tech customers like they're ordering a sandwich in a deli. You have standing contracts - EULAs, MSAs, that you decide as a result of an acquisition are going to be ditched and these smaller customers can all go scratch. It's bad for business, even if they decided the revenue streams weren't worth keeping around long term. They should have given those customers some time to pivot.
The bigger issue was acquisition of IP that was past it's prime. Symantec was already long overdue for the dustbin of history, as was VMWare. Smells a lot like the old Computer Associates.
For the record, I am completely against the Broadcom acquisition. It will be bad for customers. And VMware, as a company, was great. Now it's merely a product at the mercy of a corporation with the wrong focus (as demonstrated by their divestment of the desktop computing division). The move from perpetual licensing to subscription was inevitable. But this was not the way…
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