[Info-vax] Broadcom ends availablility of the free edition ESXi Hypervisor

[Simon Clubley]

On 2024-02-12, Chris Townley <news at cct-net.co.uk> wrote:
> On 12/02/2024 18:42, Simon Clubley wrote:
>> For those of you using the free ESXi Hypervisor to run VMS on x86-64,
>> be aware Broadcom have now removed the free edition download:
>> 
>> https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2107518?lang=en_US
>> 
>>  From that document:
>> 
>> |Along with the termination of perpetual licensing, Broadcom has also
>> |decided to discontinue the Free ESXi Hypervisor, marking it as EOGA (End
>> |of General Availability).
>> 
>
> Surely nobody will be surprised...
>

To be honest Chris, given their reputation, I am surprised it took them
as long as it did. :-(

I suspect that by the time Broadcom get through with this, people will
regard IBM's mainframe licencing as a model of liberal licencing by
comparison. :-)

The industry rumours seem to indicate that Broadcom are willing to let
most of their customers go, provided they can hold on to the top XX%
of highly profitable customers and squeeze them for licence fees.

_If_ that is true, then someone should remind them there are alternatives,
this is not z/OS (with its unique ecosystem), and that the next generation
of people will become very familiar with those alternatives.

IOW, _if_ the rumours are true, then this would appear to be a short-term
approach, and they should be reminded exactly why (for example) Linux came
to crush the commercial Unix ecosystem.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.