Thought Leadership
VMware owner Broadcom has surprisingly announced that it will offer the desktop virtualization solutions VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion free of charge with immediate effect. The release now applies not only to private use, but also to commercial and educational use.
The previously paid Pro versions of the two hypervisor products will no longer be available as a paid subscription model. Back in May, the company released VMware Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro for private use to enable students and home users to experiment with virtualized test environments and other operating systems.
“Effective immediately, we are making both VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation available completely free of charge,” explains Himanshu Singh, Product Marketing Director at Broadcom. Existing commercial contracts will remain in place until the end of their term, including the agreed enterprise support.
Restrictions on support
Although the free version contains the full range of functions of the previous Pro versions, Broadcom will no longer offer ticket support for troubleshooting. However, the company assures that it will continue to develop new features and provide regular updates.
“We are actively investing in new features, usability improvements and other valuable enhancements,” Singh emphasizes. “Our development teams continue to maintain our high standards for stability and ensure timely updates and reliable performance.” Interested parties can download VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation from the official website after logging in with a Broadcom account.
