[German]I couldn't believe my ears, but an unnamed source whispered to me that VMWare by Broadcom is thinking about giving away free licenses for Linux "for a short time". Here are some details of what I've heard as "rumor" – I haven't received official confirmation yet.
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According to my source, VMWare by Broadcom has come under severe pressure, especially in the Linux segment, because products such as Proxmox and hypervisor XCP-NG are significantly cheaper for its customers.
Customer loss at VMware
In order to slow down the loss of customers, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan has decided to take a symbolic step. Licenses for Linux are to be free "for a short period", but not for longer than a year – and training and support are of course not included.
A deceptive package?
I'm not sure if I've understood my source correctly, but he mumbles that there's a rumor going around that Hock Tan made the remark in a confidential meeting that "customers are already being milked enough, you can demonstrate good will for a moment" and hand out free Linux licenses.
I'm not really sure about my source, because I recently mentioned the tougher stance against Siemens in the article VMware sues Siemens for lack of licenses. And there is also the article NNext VMWare by Broadcom license hammer: At least 72 cores required, which addresses a licensing threshold of 72 cores per product from April 2025.
VMware Workstation and Fusion are also free
No matter where I look, VMWare by Broadcom is more expensive than free. Although they are good for surprises. Let me remind you of my first report Will VMware Workstation be free soon also für business user? from November 2024, where I insisted that VMware would permanently release its workstation products free of charge for business applications. Some thought it was fake, but in the post VMware Fusion and Workstation now free for all I was able to confirm this – so my source was not "hallucinating".
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Is the rumor true?
Now the exciting question remains as to whether the rumor is really true and an official announcement will follow at the beginning of the month – or whether the whole thing is being sprinkled under the table as a goodie for some customers. The idea of "it's true, the short period was for 31.12.2024, on the condition that the sun shines at 23:59" popped into my head. But of course that's humbug, VMware by Broadcom doesn't do that – it would be "customer bullshit".
Now I'm still wondering whether you need licenses for Linux at all and whether VCF even runs on Linux. I think I'll have to talk to my source again or see if I can contact someone else at VMware.
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VMware ESXi is the operating system of vSphere (and thus VCF).
vCenter (the consolidated management for vSphere) runs on a special Linux flavor that they maintain named PhotonOS. But vCenter is from now on always included in their license bundles I think.
The only VMware software that runs on top of Linux is Player or Workstation as far as I know. So I don't really understand what your source is actually saying besided, workstation will be free for 1 year.