
Great chance to get some free experience
Or am I being a bit slow ?
VMware has made another small but notable post-merger concession to users: the Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro desktop hypervisor products will now be free for personal use. The cloud and virtualization biz, now a Broadcom subsidiary, has announced that its Pro apps will be available under two license models: a "Free Personal …
I'm not sure it's very valuable. Anything you do with these can never be used for making money. I'm not sure about other people but even on personal projects I'm always aware that my work could be valuable but if I started on one of these products I never can. Even a document I create inside a VM could never be used for business purposes presumably.
Yeah, I spent over 40 irritating minutes searching, finally found it, downloaded and installed the Workstation Pro 17.5.2 but... I use Virtualbox every day for over 15 years now, but since I already lost my enthusiasm for VMWare due to their site being so easy to navigate, I became too lazy to install windows from scratch in a new machine, so decided instead to import an .ova device made from the working windows VBox machine. Unfortuantely, VMWare found that .ova's device line 16 and 19 were not compatible and so, that was it for me. Maybe next time.
But anyway, good luck for other enthusiasts and thank you VMWare/Broadcom for a nice gesture.
Bet that VMware site 404 page is not as neat as this...
https://www.theregister.com/Design/graphics/icons/404_img.jpg
If they have to shut down their store for 14 days just to move it over to a new domain, it doesn't inspire much confidence in their product. I've done similar domain transfers and they took a few seconds to occur from the point of view of external users. From a company that thinks of themselves as the kings of virtualization, and could therefore have had both old and new running simultaneously using their own actual product, this should have been even easier.
and clicking that link leads to here:
https://store-us.vmware.com/workstation_buy_dual
which currently says:
[quote]
VMware Store
Down for Maintenance
As part of the transition to Broadcom systems, the store will be moving to a new domain. As a result, store will be shutdown starting 30 Apr 2024.
To be notified when store is back and operational, enter email here. (link to: https://www.digitalriver.com/cloudvista.)
For more information, see KB article 319284. (link to: https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleId=319284 )
Thank you for your patience.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
[/end]
So, just bookmark it and come back some other time?
But BAD PR from Broadcom to announce this and make it unavailable.... :-(
I've been surprised at how well VirtualBox works. There's the trap of the Oracle extension pack, or whatever it's called, which is another of Oracle's licensing Trojan horses; but if you avoid that, VirtualBox seems like a good choice for casual desktop-VM purposes.
I used to pay for VMWare Workstation. I didn't mind, because there was an employee (Petr his name was) that was very good at porting the module glue to new kernel releases. As soon as I hit a snag and couldn't compile the module I'd go look and he'd have snippets in the forum. So I got along with that.
One day that stopped (I guess he was assigned to other things?), and while I still got along, they suddenly switched to a GUI installer that didn't work. I paid for an upgrade and couldn't even get it off the ground. They refer you to their "system requirements" reinforced by their forum nannies. That in itself felt highly insulting, because I had spent a lot of time helping users with their guest OSes and stuff in those forums.
I solved my problem by switching to VirtualBox. At that time it wasn't as good (started getting better, fast), but I got along with it well and you didn't hear them whinging about supported kernel versions, though in the end it did prove to be a lesser, but similar nuisance that way. I got tired of getting over my head with kernel code and having to wait.
I eventually just switched to Qemu and used that with no front end (entire VM in the command line) and because Qemu itself is just a front end to KVM in kernel, I used that same Qemu binary I built for like 4 years and the kernel interfaces never (and still haven't, to my knowledge) broke it, though I'm using newer stuff now with a virt-manager front end on a different system.
People don't have to pay to run virtual machines anymore.
So yeah, so long and thanks for the fish. That ship has sailed etc. etc. :-)
The update server is still up, and you can download a tar archive of the Windows installer for 17.5.1
https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/ws/17.5.1/23298084/windows/core/VMware-workstation-17.5.1-23298084.exe.tar
I just did it, and in the newly installed Workstation, clicked 'Help' in the menu bar, then 'Software Update' and was offered 17.5.2 build-23775571 which downloaded and worked fine, along with drivers, etc.
By the way, I suppose we won't now be needing the free licence serials that bloke on Github has been allowed to give away for a while now?
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Thanks. I found the release notes for VMware Workstation 17.5.2 Pro Release Notes on https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workstation-Pro/17.5.2/rn/vmware-workstation-1752-pro-release-notes/index.html which confirm what you wrote: (This release resolves CVE-2024-22267, CVE-2024-22268, CVE-2024-22269, and CVE-2024-22270.)
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You wait until they change the license terms again and then screw all those suckers who downloaded it for free, they got your details and they'll be after you for a £25 license this time next year when takings are down. I draw your attention to how Oracle did that exact same thing with the Java runtime.
Broadcom can f**k off, wouldn't touch your shite with another person's 10ft barge pole!
Its always been free.
You download the binaries for Win/Lin/Mac from VMware's website.
And then you google for the version + keys + github and usually can find a repo with a listing of serial keys.
What is surprising is that VMware has never had any DRM in it.
What you have now is less free:
https://www.vmware.com/content/vmware/vmware-published-sites/us/products/desktop-hypervisor.html.html
No longer do they allow you to simply download the installer.
《even when they bear gifts.》
Especially when they bear gifts.
As a teen age reader I was puzzled why the Trojans didn't drag the horse onto the plain and stick a match to it - I am sure Kassandra would have done the honours.
Now I guess the horse had some religious or symbolic significance for the Trojans and would have been seen as an offering to their gods by the departing Achaeans and destroying it sacrilege.
Odysseus had a lot in common with contemporary corporate (lack of) values - certainly count your fingers after a handshake with either.
Wasn't that because of divine intervention? The Greek supporting gods got up earlier than the Trojan helping ones, so any naysayers (Laokoon and his sons, for example) were silenced.
Sounds right. The Trojan faction on Olympus were more the party girl types if I recall correctly while the Achaean faction more the bluestocking and more likely early risers. :)
I thought everybody had figured out that you can just use kvm/qemu at this point, with a side bonus of it even runs under WSL2 if you're a Windows user..
As for topic, isn't the entire business world running away screaming?
Basically there's no reason for vmware to exist at this point, last one out please turn off the lights.
Broadcom could certainly be doing a better job in looking after its acquired VMware customers! The old VMware site has shut down and I can't log on to the new Broadcom support site https://support.broadcom.com/! Password reset appears to be broken at the moment.
At least The Register remains a great source of reliable information, even if Broadcom is struggling!
Looking at the comparison table:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240211232610/https://store-us.vmware.com/compare_workstation
(As their site is down.)
Really the only thing you'd really want over Workstation Player is Secure Boot. You can run multiple VMs at once with the free Player, and other Pro things are of very limited use (Snapshots maybe to some).
I'll update to it of course... and I find it better than the alternatives for me, maybe I'm out of date on how they are with 3D graphics, etc.
A long time ago, I used VMware Workstation to create a VM image of my laptop which was running XP at the time, prior to installing Linux and then running the prior OS as a guest whilst transitioning to Linux. That imaging process was painless and "just worked"
After which you can try ESXi and perform your first business deployment using the entry-level cost vSphere essentials kit................
Oh, so much for that progression.
I think most people are rather busy dealing the major budget issues they have due to all the product and price changes to vSphere.
At least Broadcom are making their intentions and actions clear. In a crowded virtual and container market, I doubt I’ll use Fusion again. They’re clear about the value of the product to them; zero. The VMware business strategy was never clear, never ambitious nor extensive, sometimes weird (I’m talking about the RabbitMQ acquisition, which is a great product, but surely a sore thumb), and so much potential was squandered.
At least they’re not Google.
Making proprietary software available to use gratis is never a nice gesture. A nice gesture would be releasing the Source Code. What Broadcom are doing is a transparent attempt to tempt you and lock you into their proprietary system.
In the worst case, they could even start charging you for it once you are well and truly dependent.
They are obviously worried that Open Source competitors are, or will soon be, gaining ground on them. Don't fall for it, kids!
I use VMWare a lot. I have a licence that covers me for the Pro versions of both Fusion and Workstation. Obviously I can get both for free now, but I needed the license years ago..
I'm aware there are perfectly capable free solutions. For instance VirtualBox or Proxmox. In fact, in my attempts to update my knowledge on Windows System admin, I installed Proxmox on an old PC, giving it a couple of SSDs, then set up a complete domain in VMS on that machine.. It won't wine any awards for performance, but it isn't a production setup. Speed doesn't matter much.
But, part of my job is packaging software for deployment. Some of which is quite hardware intensive, and really doesn't run well on Virtualbox. So, I needed VMware for that..
Off to download the "free" VMware Workstation...
The Broadcom site makes you register, so forget the old VM account login, no use here. NB You can't D/L from the VMware website any more.
The new site insists I "build a profile"... OK done.
I search around for downloads, find the new 17... but it won't let me D/L it, seems I'm not allowed access to software as it's not "part of my Profile"- back to Profile Builder!
OK, cool I find the option to access VMware software within Profile Builder, but now it wants account details as though I'm a paying customer, and that is a VMware SiteID.
Has it not crossed Broadcom's mind that if someone is downloading Workstation for "Personal Use Only" they might not be a paying customer?
They should put Workstation in the default Profile Setup as a given.
Here are the download links for both products (you need to have signed up for a support account first) - make sure you tick the box to agree download terms and the download button will then be enabled.
https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware%20Fusion
https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware%20Workstation%20Pro
For ease of reference, pls find them listed below - you will need to have signed up for a Broadcom support account before hand, and in order to download the products (only the latest version can be downloaded), accepting the t&cs will enable the download link.
https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware%20Fusion
https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware%20Workstation%20Pro
Not sure what making it free does for us. I have already paid for it, but cannot download it to put it on my new laptop. In fact, I can't get to ANY of my entitlements. Even created a support case the first of the week and provided them with copies of the contract numbers and everything, but now when I try to log in to see the status of the case I just get an "error, please try again later".
On my second attempt I was able to download the Windows version with these instructions:
1. Open your web browser and go to broadcom.com, then login or create an account
(maybe have a coffee between these two steps, I was rushing)
2. Goto: https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware Workstation Pro
3. On the page, locate the “VMware Workstation Pro for personal use". You will see various installer versions for different operating systems (e.g., Windows, Linux).
On my 5th attempt the link "VMware Workstation Pro for personal use (Linux)" worked!
I can register, but I then have to "complete my profile" before I can download anything. Ok, I can live with that.
However. the "software" section of the profile (which seems the right bit to complete) requires a phone number (easy enough) and a site ID - which I don't have as this is for personal use!
Like others, I use VirtualBox for my personal VM needs, have been doing so for over a decade. So, I don't really understand why free VMWare is such a big deal. I guess if you use the paid version in a work environment, having the same available as a free option for non-work environments makes sense. Would have made more sense 10 years ago before people were forced to find other options.