XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

<https://blogs.vmware.com/workstation/2024/05/vmware-workstation-pro-now-available-free-for-personal-use.html>

<https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware+Workstation+Pro>

<https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware+Fusion>

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XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On Thu, 16 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0600, Jim <jim@bnhjmnhjmn.com> wrote:

<https://blogs.vmware.com/workstation/2024/05/vmware-workstation-pro-now-available-free-for-personal-use.html>

<https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware+Workstation+Pro>

<https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware+Fusion>

There's been an update since then. https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/desktop-hypervisors/workstation-pro/17-0/release-notes/vmware-workstation-1762-pro-release-notes.html

What's New

Free Licensing Model
VMware Workstiation Pro no longer requires a license key and is now free for commercial, educational, and personal use.

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XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On 1/17/25 05:25 AM, Allan Higdon wrote:

On Thu, 16 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0600, Jim <jim@bnhjmnhjmn.com> wrote:

<https://blogs.vmware.com/workstation/2024/05/vmware-workstation-pro-now-available-free-for-
personal-use.html>

<https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware+Workstation+Pro>

<https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware+Fusion>

There's been an update since then. https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/desktop-hypervisors/workstation-pro/17-0/release-
notes/vmware-workstation-1762-pro-release-notes.html

What's New

Free Licensing Model
VMware Workstiation Pro no longer requires a license key and is now free for commercial,
educational, and personal use.

Do you go through all the 'verification' when downloading the software? I wasn't expecting having
to give away my life history to get the program.

--
Linux Mint 22, Cinnamon 6.2.9, Kernel 6.8.0-51-generic
Thunderbird 128.5.2esr, Mozilla Firefox 134.0
Alan K.

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XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On Fri, 17 Jan 2025 07:10:18 -0600, Alan K. <alan@invalid.com> wrote:

On 1/17/25 05:25 AM, Allan Higdon wrote:

On Thu, 16 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0600, Jim <jim@bnhjmnhjmn.com> wrote:

<https://blogs.vmware.com/workstation/2024/05/vmware-workstation-pro-now-available-free-for-
personal-use.html>

<https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware+Workstation+Pro>

<https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware+Fusion>

There's been an update since then.
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/desktop-hypervisors/workstation-pro/17-0/release-
notes/vmware-workstation-1762-pro-release-notes.html

What's New

Free Licensing Model
VMware Workstiation Pro no longer requires a license key and is now free for commercial,
educational, and personal use.

Do you go through all the 'verification' when downloading the software? I wasn't expecting having
to give away my life history to get the program.

No, I don't. I download it from MajorGeeks. https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/vmware_workstation_for_windows.html

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XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

Jim <jim@bnhjmnhjmn.com> wrote:

<https://blogs.vmware.com/workstation/2024/05/vmware-workstation-pro-now-available-free-for-personal-use.html>

<https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware+Workstation+Pro>

<https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware+Fusion>

Here is one of many articles that compare the VMware Workstation Player
(free) to the VMware Workstation Pro (paid) which I used to just call
Player and Pro since Workstation really wasn't a differentiating term in
the product titles:

https://www.diskinternals.com/vmfs-recovery/vmware-workstation-pro-vs-player/

To me, the 2 features I did not realize the VMware Player (free) did not support were: run multiple concurrent VMs, and VM snapshots. I trialed
both VMware Workstation Player and Virtualbox, and had decided to go
with Virtualbox. Been with that when it was owned by Sun, and later
when Oracle acquired Sun (users were concerned about the survival of
Virtualbox when Oracle snagged it). Been a few years since I have used
a VMM (Virtual Machine Manager). I remember with Virtualbox having
multiple VMs running at the same time (and why I got gobs of memory to
divvy up between them), and snapshotting afforded a means of VM state
backups allowing me to choose which state (snapshot) to use rather than
having to step atop a current state by restoring from backups. As I
recall, with VMware Player, I got the equivalent of snapshots by copying
the .vmd virtual disk file to keep that state, and choose which to load
at the time I loaded a VM.

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XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On Fri, 17 Jan 2025 16:58:06 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

To me, the 2 features I did not realize the VMware Player (free) did not support were: run multiple concurrent VMs, and VM snapshots.

Odd, because I have been running multiple concurrent VMs in VMware
Player (free), currently using version 16.2.5 (released 13 Dec 2022).
I just open another instance of VMware Player from the menu, select
a different VM to the one already running, and click "Play virtual
machine". Is this theoretically impossible for me to be doing?


--
Kind regards
Ralph Fox
🦊️

He that will not when he may, when he wills he shall have nay.

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XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid> wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

To me, the 2 features I did not realize the VMware Player (free) did not
support were: run multiple concurrent VMs, and VM snapshots.

Odd, because I have been running multiple concurrent VMs in VMware
Player (free), currently using version 16.2.5 (released 13 Dec 2022).
I just open another instance of VMware Player from the menu, select
a different VM to the one already running, and click "Play virtual
machine". Is this theoretically impossible for me to be doing?

It has been far too long since I last used VMWare Player to remember
running multiple VMs with it. What I found misleading is that you
cannot save snapshots. Sure you can by just copying the .vmd disk image
file (or was it .vmdk?), and use it later to revert to using that VM
state. That the VMM didn't have an built-in snapshot (file) select
didn't stop users from manipulating the file themselves.

As for running multiple concurrent VMs, maybe what their talking about
is the VMM (Virtual Machine Manager) won't do it for Player, but you
workaround the limitation by loading another instance of the VMM to load another VM under that instance. You loading another instance of VMware
Player sounds like the same workaround.

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