{"id":37547,"date":"2025-04-01T00:16:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T22:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/159.69.82.204\/win\/?p=37547"},"modified":"2025-04-01T00:25:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T22:25:57","slug":"vmware-broadcom-rumor-linux-licenses-free-for-a-short-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/2025\/04\/01\/vmware-broadcom-rumor-linux-licenses-free-for-a-short-time\/","title":{"rendered":"VMware\/Broadcom: Rumor, Linux licenses free for a short time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.borncity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-9.png\" alt=\"VMware\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\" align=\"left\" \/>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.borncity.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/01\/vmware-broadcom-geruecht-linux-lizenzen-kurzzeitig-gratis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">German<\/a>]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\" &#8211; I haven't received official confirmation yet.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vg08.met.vgwort.de\/na\/8fb0e560e8e44788b7575d5aea6f7a9f\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/>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.<\/p>\n<h2>Customer loss at VMware<\/h2>\n<p>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 &#8211; and training and support are of course not included.<\/p>\n<h2>A deceptive package?<\/h2>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>I'm not really sure about my source, because I recently mentioned the tougher stance against Siemens in the article <a href=\"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/2025\/03\/29\/vmware-sues-siemens-for-lack-of-licenses\/\">VMware sues Siemens for lack of licenses<\/a>. And there is also the article N<a href=\"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/2025\/03\/30\/next-vmware-by-broadcom-license-hammer-at-least-72-cores-required\/\">Next VMWare by Broadcom license hammer: At least 72 cores required<\/a>, which addresses a licensing threshold of 72 cores per product from April 2025.<\/p>\n<h2>VMware Workstation and Fusion are also free<\/h2>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/2024\/11\/09\/will-vmware-workstation-be-free-soon-also-fur-business-user\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Will VMware Workstation be free soon also f\u00fcr business user?<\/a> 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/2024\/11\/12\/vmware-fusion-and-workstation-now-free-for-all\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">VMware Fusion and Workstation now free for all<\/a> I was able to confirm this &#8211; so my source was not \"hallucinating\".<\/p>\n<h2>Is the rumor true?<\/h2>\n<p>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 &#8211; 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 &#8211; it would be \"customer bullshit\".<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[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\" &#8211; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/2025\/04\/01\/vmware-broadcom-rumor-linux-licenses-free-for-a-short-time\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1319],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-37547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37547"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37551,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37547\/revisions\/37551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}