A few days ago, I wrote about my use of virtual machines and I mentioned this:
Now, earlier on I did mention that I currently run two virtual machine software. That’s going to change as I am going to migrate to UTM for all my virtual machines. I’m doing that because since VMware has been acquired by Broadcom, their level of support has nosedived. You can take a scroll through the VMware Sub-Reddit to see the complaints about this acquisition that people have. And a lot of my clients are looking to move their enterprise level virtual machines off of the VMware platform for greener pastures like Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix or Citrix as a result of the chaos caused by the Broadcom acquisition. That lessens my need to run VMware’s software. Also UTM has much broader support for classic operating systems such as Windows XP and Windows 7. Which is something that VMware doesn’t offer. Thus it makes sense for me to transition to UTM.
Well I may be rethinking this move because The Register is reporting that VMware or more accurately Broadcom who owns VMware now is going to offer Workstation Pro for PC and Fusion Pro for Mac are now going to be offered for free… For personal use. Now part of me thinks that this is a trap as this is an honour system. Meaning that if you’re some kid in their college dorm, Broadcom won’t care. But some company will likely play fast and loose with this and I can see Broadcom doing an audit and catching out a company on this front. I’m thinking this because the acquisition of VMware by Broadcom has been a clown show.
Anyway, the transition from the VMware customer portal to the Broadcom version is something that’s currently ongoing and is scheduled to end today. Assuming that happens on schedule, which given that this whole acquisition has been a clown show as mentioned previously I question if that is going be the case, I’ll be able to get a license key and test out Fusion Pro. Then I will be able to make a call as to if I should move to UTM. Right now I can’t see any of my VMware license keys in the customer portal, and I can’t make new ones to get Fusion Pro working. But let’s see if that changes.
UPDATE: Here’s the official announcement from VMware/Broadcom
UPDATE #2: I just got a chance to try updating to version 13.5.2 of VMware Fusion. It didn’t work and I am still stuck on VMware Fusion Player. I did some checking around and I found this post from the Product Manager of VMware Fusion Michael Roy who states that he is coming up with details on how to convert to Fusion Pro if you have Fusion Player installed. But the linked post walks you through how to install Fusion Pro as a new user.
UPDATE #3: I now have the Pro version of VMware Fusion installed. What I did is use a utility called AppCleaner to get rid of the current install of VMware Fusion Player. Then I downloaded version 13.5.2 from the Broadcom site and installed it. When you do that, you get the option to use the Pro version for personal use after the install is finished. This is pretty dumb as I should not have to delete the app to get this to work. It should simply work via an upgrade to 13.5.2. Clearly VMware or likely Broadcom didn’t have this scenario in their test plans. In any case, you won’t lose any of your virtual machines by doing this. Though you will have to go to File –> Scan For Virtual Machines to add them back.
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This entry was posted on May 14, 2024 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags VMWare. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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VMware Now Offering Workstation Pro And Fusion Pro For Free
A few days ago, I wrote about my use of virtual machines and I mentioned this:
Now, earlier on I did mention that I currently run two virtual machine software. That’s going to change as I am going to migrate to UTM for all my virtual machines. I’m doing that because since VMware has been acquired by Broadcom, their level of support has nosedived. You can take a scroll through the VMware Sub-Reddit to see the complaints about this acquisition that people have. And a lot of my clients are looking to move their enterprise level virtual machines off of the VMware platform for greener pastures like Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix or Citrix as a result of the chaos caused by the Broadcom acquisition. That lessens my need to run VMware’s software. Also UTM has much broader support for classic operating systems such as Windows XP and Windows 7. Which is something that VMware doesn’t offer. Thus it makes sense for me to transition to UTM.
Well I may be rethinking this move because The Register is reporting that VMware or more accurately Broadcom who owns VMware now is going to offer Workstation Pro for PC and Fusion Pro for Mac are now going to be offered for free… For personal use. Now part of me thinks that this is a trap as this is an honour system. Meaning that if you’re some kid in their college dorm, Broadcom won’t care. But some company will likely play fast and loose with this and I can see Broadcom doing an audit and catching out a company on this front. I’m thinking this because the acquisition of VMware by Broadcom has been a clown show.
Anyway, the transition from the VMware customer portal to the Broadcom version is something that’s currently ongoing and is scheduled to end today. Assuming that happens on schedule, which given that this whole acquisition has been a clown show as mentioned previously I question if that is going be the case, I’ll be able to get a license key and test out Fusion Pro. Then I will be able to make a call as to if I should move to UTM. Right now I can’t see any of my VMware license keys in the customer portal, and I can’t make new ones to get Fusion Pro working. But let’s see if that changes.
UPDATE: Here’s the official announcement from VMware/Broadcom
UPDATE #2: I just got a chance to try updating to version 13.5.2 of VMware Fusion. It didn’t work and I am still stuck on VMware Fusion Player. I did some checking around and I found this post from the Product Manager of VMware Fusion Michael Roy who states that he is coming up with details on how to convert to Fusion Pro if you have Fusion Player installed. But the linked post walks you through how to install Fusion Pro as a new user.
UPDATE #3: I now have the Pro version of VMware Fusion installed. What I did is use a utility called AppCleaner to get rid of the current install of VMware Fusion Player. Then I downloaded version 13.5.2 from the Broadcom site and installed it. When you do that, you get the option to use the Pro version for personal use after the install is finished. This is pretty dumb as I should not have to delete the app to get this to work. It should simply work via an upgrade to 13.5.2. Clearly VMware or likely Broadcom didn’t have this scenario in their test plans. In any case, you won’t lose any of your virtual machines by doing this. Though you will have to go to File –> Scan For Virtual Machines to add them back.
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This entry was posted on May 14, 2024 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags VMWare. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.