VMware has recently made significant changes to its licensing model, moving from perpetual to subscription-based licensing following its acquisition by Broadcom. This change has resulted in a price increase for many companies. Additionally, VMware has announced the discontinuation of the free ESXi hypervisor, a popular choice among students, home lab enthusiasts, and others interested in virtualization.
However, there is good news for users looking to use Type 2 hypervisors for free for personal use. Michael Roy, the product line manager for VMware‘s desktop hypervisor products, announced that users can now use VMware‘s desktop hypervisors, Workstation 17 Pro and Fusion 13 Pro, for free for personal use. These Type 2 hypervisors run as applications on top of existing operating systems like Windows, Linux, or macOS.
Workstation, VMware‘s first product released in 1999, allows users to run multiple operating systems on a single physical x86 machine. It was quickly adopted by IT administrators, developers, and students due to its ability to run multiple virtual machines on desktops and laptops. Workstation supports various guest operating systems and offers features like snapshots, 3D graphics acceleration, and USB device support.
Compared to its big brother ESXi, Workstation is a Type 2 hypervisor that runs on Windows or Linux, while ESXi is a Type 1 hypervisor that runs directly on the hardware. ESXi offers enterprise-focused features such as vMotion and High Availability. Workstation, on the other hand, includes unique networking features like bandwidth limiting and network latency creation for VMs.
While the free version of ESXi has been retired, VMware offers a 60-day trial of VMware vSphere 8, which includes ESXi and vSphere Server for management. The availability of Workstation Pro for personal use is a significant win for hobbyists, enthusiasts, students, and anyone who wants to run multiple operating systems on a single system.
In the next article, the author plans to provide a detailed guide on downloading and installing Workstation on their laptop. Tom Fenton, the author, has extensive IT experience in virtualization and storage and has worked in various technical roles at companies like VMware and ControlUp.
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