They’re discontinuing VMware Player but allowing you to use VMware Workstation free for personal use. I believe it’s forcing the commercial customers to purchase a subscription now, and funny how the OCGFC and all their megacorps are pushing everything towards subscriptions. You do have to sign up with Broadcom’s website and give your personal information, and in my case my download is on hold pending verification. I’ve found VMware’s virtualization 3D graphics support to be better than Virtualbox, but I may give them another thorough look as I have my concerns about Broadcom taking over VMware.
Addendum: Link to update server download of VMware Workstation for Windows. Maneuver through directories for other versions, and after install on first run it asks if you are using it for personal use or to input key.
By Brad Linder
Cloud computing and virtualization software company VMware has announced that its flagship desktop software is now free for personal use.
Individual users can now download and use VMWare Fusion Pro for Mac or VMWare Workstation Pro for PC for free. VMWare still requires commercial customers to pay for a license, but the company has vastly simplified pricing (there’s now just one SKU that costs $120 per year rather than 40 different SKUs). But VMware is basically using the honor system here: you get to decide whether you need a commercial subscription, and there’s effectively no difference between the free and paid versions.
There is one small difference: if you’re using the free version you’ll see a notice that “This product is licensed for personal use only.” That message goes away if you pay for a license.
VMware’s Workstation and Fusion Pro software allows you to set up a virtual machine on just about any computer, letting you install an operating system and run software inside of a host operating system. Among other things, this makes it possible to run an alternate operating system without rebooting, or run a separate instance of your primary operating system in a sandboxed environment for security, testing, or development purposes.
As part of the announcement that its Pro products are now free for personal users, VMware has also revealed that it’s killing off its VMware Workstation Player and Fusion Player products, which had been its free, stripped down virtualization products. If you were using either of those, VMware notes that you can now upgrade to the Pro version for free and just delete your license key to unlock full functionality.
While it’s hard to argue that taking a paid app and making it free for personal use is a bad thing, Ars Technica notes that things are a bit less cut and dry for business customers. While the $120/year license is reasonably competitive, it’s also the only option that VMware is offering for business customers moving forward. In other words, you can’t buy a perpetual license and continue using the software indefinitely – you need to pay for a subscription if you want a commercial license to use VMware Fusion or Workstation software.
One thing to keep in mind is that unlike VirtualBox and some other virtualization apps, you do still need to register for an account and hand over some personal information before you can download and use even the free versions of VMware’s Pro apps.
VMware was acquired by Broadcomm last year and is now a subsidiary of that company, so you’ll need to set up a Broadcom account to use the software.