VMware Workstation Pro Now Free for All Users Even Businesses

VMware certainly made news yesterday with the announcement that VMware Workstation Pro is now free for all users even businesses and organizations. If you remember, in May of this year, they made the announcement that VMware Workstation Pro would be free for personal use. I covered this story with a blog and a YouTube video. However, now they have extended this news to include all users, even businesses. What is included in this announcement? What are the motivations behind it? Let’s talk about this announcement in more detail.

A Gift or a Gamble?

With the Broadcom buyout and MAJOR licensing changes that businesses and organizations have been facing this past year, it makes you wonder what the overall strategy is here with the VMware Workstation and Fusion portfolio with their desktop hypervisor.

With the outrage and pushback from the industry on the licensing changes across the board, it makes you wonder if the “gift” of giving away the free VMware Workstation solution is a peace offering to help buffer some of the sticker shock in other areas to help ease tensions with SMBs and Enterprises to win back some of their trust and loyalty.

It is also interesting too the rumors I have seen that Broadcom will be moving VMware Workstation away from the proprietary hypervisor underneath the hood and over to KVM virtualization for the workstation product. So, in my opinion, this would mean less development in-house from a VMware perspective and relying on the upcoming enhancements from the community and open-source KVM project. Is this part of further simplification by Broadcom?

You can read some of that rumor mill here: VMware Workstation shifting towards KVM. : r/sysadmin.

What’s the Real Motivation?

If we are reading between the lines, what is Broadcom’s deeper strategy with the announcement? One positive thing is that whatever motivation, free software is free software. I have always thought VMware Workstation was the undisputed king of desktop virtualization, even with client Hyper-V. Now with Workstation free, there is no real argument about client Hyper-V since many users run Home edition of Windows and Hyper-V is only available with Pro and higher.

I’m wondering too, now that ESXi free version is no longer available, is Broadcom looking at this as a way to gain loyalty from developers, students, and other enthusiasts with the free software offering. This will make it easier for educational institutions to use the solution as well in their curriculums and classroom settings. Is this part of Broadcom’s strategy? I am just not sure, but one could speculate that may be part of the idea that is behind the free software offering.

What’s Missing in the Fine Print?

One of the items in the fine print is that support has shifted with VMware Workstation. Once customer’s contracts end, they will no longer have access to support ticketing with VMware Workstation as a paid product as such. This may be a pretty big drawback for shops that heavily rely on VMware Workstation for development environments and other activities.

VMware is shifting the solution into a more community-supported and documentation supported product that allow once to find support using those channels. So overall, I think the shift away from the paid model with VMware Workstation from the standpoint of Broadcom may pay for itself with the removal of all the dedicated support resources with the product moving forward.

What Does This Mean for You?

If you need and can use a desktop hypervisor for your virtualization needs in your business or elsewhere, this could be a game changer. VMware Workstation is a solid virtualization platform with many “enterprise” type features that can provide a great deal of virtual horsepower for your needs. Organizations that need to setup virtual environments for testing, development or educational purposes will benefit from this announcement.

On the other side of the coin, businesses that have relied on VMware Workstation and Fusion as part of their production and development workflows may be disappointed with the new support realities of the product, even with the removal of cost. Sometimes community-driven support is just not enough to resolve certain issues that enterprise support offers.

What about competitors?

It is likely to cause some to shift away from other free solutions that have been out there for years. Oracle VirtualBox has long been a favorite among tinkerers, educational institutions, and others due to the free nature of the product. Hyper-V has had the argument for many that it is just included in Windows (but with a Pro or higher license needed).

VMware’s Workstation now offers a comparable and, I think, much superior alternative to those longstanding solutions with really good integration capabilities for those who already use VMware’s broader suite, like vSphere.

Will this move signal Broadcom’s strategy to offer other products and solutions for free in lieu of the backlash, as mentioned, over license hikes across other solutions in the portfolio? Time will tell. I doubt that we will see ESXi free brought back any time soon, but with the mass exodus of VMware customers for other solutions like Nutanix, it makes me wonder on that point as well.

What is next?

It is hard to tell exactly what the end game is with VMware Workstation and Fusion changes. However, Broadcom is definitely trying to appeal to the community and existing customers I think with this offering to hopefully broaden their reach and woo customers back to the ecosystem. I am left head scratching though with other developments like enforcing certification as a requirement for VMUG Advantage and other moves.

Whatever the end goal, we can ride the wave of free software for now and see where this takes us. The ending of support contracts with the Workstation product line may sour the deal for some enterprise customers. Although, I will say, in using VMware Workstation for years, it seems to “just work” with very few issues.

Wrapping up

Is this a turning point in Broadcom thinking or is it just a response to increasing pressure and outcry over licensing increases? Again, time will tell on that front, but the benefit and win for the community is access to what I think is the best desktop virtualization solution among the options available.

The removal of support for the product outside of community resources and documentation will likely be detrimental to a few customers who rely on paid support, but overall, I am hoping this won’t be as impactful as one might think.

Will this be enough to preserve the goodwill of existing customers? I am doubtful that offering VMware Workstation as free will be enough for organizations to swallow the tremendous price increases they have seen across the board. However, I am encouraged about the new licensing level for getting hands-on with VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus once again, which I think will help soften some of the mass exodus.