Software's free version was a good fit for tinkerers and hobbyists.

Since Broadcom’s $61 billion acquisition of VMware closed in November 2023, Broadcom has been charging ahead with major changes to the company’s personnel and products. In December, Broadcom began laying off thousands of employees and stopped selling perpetually licensed versions of VMware products, pushing its customers toward more stable and lucrative software subscriptions instead. In January, it ended its partner programs, potentially disrupting sales and service for many users of its products.

This week, Broadcom is making a change that is smaller in scale but possibly more relevant for home users of its products: The free version of VMware’s vSphere Hypervisor, also known as ESXi, is being discontinued.

    • yggstyle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      341·
      9 months ago

      There are a variety of options available with near feature parity. Killing the free version effectively cut out lab users which may as well say: we sure would like people to start training on a new platform. People use what they are comfortable with… and tend to carry a hatchet for companies that burn them.

      This was a short sighted play which ultimately will result in the platform dying slowly as the workforce changes. They cut off new blood: less people will be proficient with their platform and more will be pushing for a switch to the competition. In addition to the loss of the free version they massively ramped prices. They won’t last. Right now the companies that are too big to pivot are already starting to weigh the costs of transitioning vs the squeeze. The C-suite are idiots.

    • RubberDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
      111·
      9 months ago

      With infrastructure as code, vm management has become even more easy. A lot of companies are standardizing their vm park based on new deployment and management techniques e Sometimes in IaaS platforms (a fancy name for externally managed, rented hardware) but the VM has a long life ahead.

      • Bookmeat@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        Some companies are stuck with the suite and rely heavily on the additional tools like nsx and, cloud director, etc. not a lot of competition in that space with products that also provide self-service for clients. Companies lose that are still looking for alternatives now, but it’s going to be a tough migration.