Hey everyone!
You can currently get VMware Workstation Pro 17 (Windows, Linux), VMware Fusion Pro 13 (Mac) for free personal use.
Instructions:
Create a Broadcom account
Instructions how to create an account
Select Software
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleNumbe…
VMware Fusion or VMware Workstation
Enter an address and then download.
Find direct download links supplied in these comments by lawyerz
@turtlesinmypants: Xcp-ng is under rated. I run proxmox and xcp-ng but in a corporate or enterprise, between the 2 xcp-ng/xen all day
for windows?
Both hyper-v and virtualbox works fine enough
Virtualbox is hot garbage for anything requiring even remotely specialist usecases/hardware virtualisation. It's great for uni students with empty pockets, but not for professional use.
E.g. doing kernel debugging using serial I/O - nope, GPU passthrough - shit tier etc.
Not a deal, just another marketing gimmick. Thanks Broadcom for the shtshow.
Its a deal as in you used to pay for it and now you don't.
This sounds fun but I got no idea what it does. Can someone please provide an ELI5?
Basiscally, create smaller computer within your current computer.
e.g. want to try linux but dont want to bother formatting and reinstalling a whole operating system? Start a virtual machine, install it there as if its a whole new computer.
or just install a 2nd completely fresh clean windows that you can start and stop at any time to experiment with, or test out some changes, etc.
Recently I wanted to test out AtlasOS (a windows 10/11 debloater) - I just started a VM and just tried it out there instead of on my main PC.
You can also set up a VM with a VPN - and have anything you want done on a VPN there but save files on a shared folder instead..
Interesting, so its like a 2nd PC without buying a 2nd pc?
How do the specs right? do they get halved from the main PC spec? How do the drives get shared??
Yes, you choose the specs and can change it anytime. Storage, CPU, ram, etc. It's adjustable.
@Homr: This is where I'm sure others with more experience will chime in.
Without going into type 1 vs type 2, yes, historically I felt VMware is the best for home use. Things might be changing though.
Either that or VirtualBox which does the same thing really.
There's one more - Microsoft's own hyper-v software which i don't like, and felt it wasn't as easy to use.
All of them are free, at least for personal use.
I think I understand virtualization - is there any point in using this over Oracle vmbox for home use?
I've used both, they're identical in their purpose and use cases. I would say vmware have better performance but for my use case - where once i set it up i dont really have to bother with it too much, either will work.
Broadcom really screwed the pooch on VMware…. RIP
Oh Broadcom. They made some decent chips but this isn't worth it. VMWare is dead, they're just letting people poke the carcass (it's still warm!)
what some people are also not seeing is that there is no upgrade path from this
traditionally you gave away this shit to students so they can learn and then move onto vmware in the enterprise
but vmware are vacating the enterprise…
sure this is fine if you need to put windows in its on box on mac
Don't worry about it Broadcom will eventually kill Vmware off the list
Not negging as I think it's great that they are making this free to home users, and it does have a use, but personally it's too late. I run everything off a Lenovo ThinkCentre (M720Q Mini Desktop PC i5 8500T - cost about $260 off eBay last year) with Ubuntu and a dozen or so containers under docker. Currently using less than 2GB ram of the 16GB installed, with under 1% utilisation. Has helped me to retire a number of raspberry pi's as well.
Takes a bit of an effort to move from full virtual machines to containers, but it's worth the investment in time. When a new version of Home Assistant is available, I now simply go into Portainer and click on 'recreate' & pull the latest image and it's updated in a few seconds. Super quick and I no longer have to deal with SD card failures on the pi.
Although I have setup backups for the containers in case the desktop server dies, the next thing on my todo list is to setup docker redundancy.
Have you considered Proxmox and running everything in LXC containers instead?
Yes, and in fact way back when I did use QEMU/KVM that Proxmox leverages. Proxmox is good for virtualisation and container integration using LXC. Containers under LXC are not as 'lean' as they are under Docker, and I was tempted by the more efficient resource handling and faster performance. LXC is good if you want to have multiple isolated operating systems. Docker is good if you want to go that step further and have isolated applications. Both are valid options, but basically I bit the proverbial bullet, went with Docker, and have not looked back. If you haven't tried it, I recommend giving it a go.
I've tried it, still run Proxmox but Docker runs in a VM. I don't like Docker much.
@ldd-mn: Oh docker did do my head in for quite a while, but long run I think it was worth it. Running it in a vm is obviously possible, but to see the performance benefits it's worth running it on bare metal. Also helps using something like Portainer to manage it, rather than using the command line.
Haven’t used vmware workstation (or player) in years; been fairly happy with HyperV.
What’s been happening recently which has soured sentiment (even further)?
Broadcom brought VMWare, and put it straight into an aged care home.
The downfall of VMWare Workstation and Fusion products wasn’t Broadcom’s fault though. VMWare fired the team and outsourced it to China in 2016, it never recovered.
https://www.theregister.com/2016/01/27/vmware_fusion_and_wor…
stick with Hyper-V, an absolutely under rated product. I just have Linux and Windows VMs, but at one point I was running Mac OSX under Hyper-X.
VMware were acquired by Broadcom. Broadcom has a track record of pay walling previously free features, raising pricing substantially while imposing significant usage\licensing constraints.
Technically the product is fine, but from a performance perspective, Hyper-V wins hands down (has an unfair advantage though).
Hyper-V is a L1 hypervisor with DIRECT access to hardware, so is faster and more capable and a true multi-tasking hypervisor.
VMware workstation and player are consider L2, meaning they are just APPS that run and need to go via the operating system to access hardware. So can be slower and less options available. eg: Hyper-V you can directly assign disks to a virtual machine that the host OS can't even see\use, perfect for running a NAS or something.
Yeah this is only for desktop products. In corporate world VMware has been the choice for many years until cloud came in
You have dedicated ESXi hosts that has its only kernel have direct access to hardware on server systems
Perhaps change to "had", my reply was specifically focused on large enterprises.
Broadcom isn’t interested in making money from people using their software for personal use. They make all their revenue from companies.
If you install this on your work computer, you are basically giving Broadcom permission to extort your employer. So “For Personal Use” is very strict.
Don’t ever use this personal license for work use
Busy removing Broadcom software from my company. Greedily, ethicaless, (profanity).
Do not support.
for quickly making a VM even if its a bit process hungry oracle VM virtual box was my go to so i didnt have to bother any of our server team to whip up something for me
but since moving to win 11 and my new work laptop, hyper-v has been so much better of an experience i really love it
All these comments are making the $6 or whatever it was I paid for a key look pretty good.
Why not just use qemu (Linux) or Bhyve/jails (FreeBSD)? They’re free, probably better (I’m not an expert here)?
Isn't VMware Workstation Pro 17 (Windows) already free for personal use when downloaded from VMware website ??
Currently (now!) using VMware® Workstation 17 Player.
Does it requires account verification or I'm doing something wrong ?
spent hours trying then wanted Site ID questions seem like enterprise orientated so i gave up
wonder if lawyerz discovered direct download links needs a serial key or something? if they don't need a key might save the requirement of a PhD in sinusoidal depleneration to navigate their website
no serial key required. its just a straight up download link they use for 'updates' but works.
Mac: https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/fusion/
Windows or Linux: https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/player/
The Bean counters at Broadcom would have taken the approach..
We raise prices 30x
We lose Y amount of customers but the ones who cannot migrate away or simply will take the reeming and keep paying the inflated cost outweighs the amount of users they will lose.
Such a short sighted approach and not a long term strategy to say the least - especially if no new features are developed to justify such an increase.
is there a serial number somewhere for fusion ?
Mine is saying my serial has expired. (i downloaded for personal use)
Or do i have to remove the old serial ?
Uninstall your version and install the version you downloaded. It doesnt work if you already have it installed.
during installation, just an option to choose personal use and it doesnt ask for serial key. so you might need to reinstall
Here are the steps to get it:
https://appleinsider.com/inside/macos/tips/how-to-get-vmware…
For a VM dabbler, worth it to move from Virtualbox?
No.
What might be worth dabbling in is KVM (on linux), using e.g. virtmanager or quickemu
and XCP-NG