VMware Fusion Pro 13 Now Freely Available for Personal Use

[MacRumors]

VMware has announced that its Fusion Pro and Workstation Pro virtualization software is now free for personal use. For those unfamiliar with Fusion, it is designed to allow Mac users to operate virtual machines to run non-macOS operating systems like Windows 11.

The decision to make the software free was made by Broadcom, which acquired VMware in November 2023. In a blog post announcing the change, Broadcom said the move was part of a plan to simplify how the company brings VMware apps to market:

Fusion Pro and Workstation Pro will now have two license models. We now provide a Free Personal Use or a Paid Commercial Use subscription for our Pro apps. Users will decide based on their use case whether a commercial subscription is required.

This means that everyday users who want a virtual lab on their Mac, Windows or Linux computer can do so for free simply by registering and downloading the bits from the new download portal located at support.broadcom.com.

Broadcom also said it had discontinued Workstation Player and Fusion Player, although existing customers can upgrade to the more feature-packed Pro version at no extra cost. Meanwhile, VMware Player will remain bundled with Workstation Pro.

Broadcom said that customers who use Fusion and Workstation at/for work will still require a paid commercial subscription, which can be purchased through an authorized Broadcom Advantage partner. For more information, see the VMware website.

Article Link: VMware Fusion Pro 13 Now Freely Available for Personal Use

 

[fenderbass146]

Awesome! Have they made spinning up a Windows 11 ARM easy yet? I tried it a year or so ago and it was a nightmare to get working, where Parallels I was up and running in like 20 minutes.

 

[Trik]

Wow... Parallels is not going to like this very much at all. lol

 

[Natas1000]

Download links on their site are broken.

 

[purplerainpurplerain]

Download links on their site are broken.

So is Parallels finance department.

 

[Jhonjhon236]

Not going to lie, I was expecting Broadcom to ruin VMware with subscriptions or something. This is a pleasant suprise. Though I guess they are still screwing over enterprise clients so that sucks.

 

[Antoniosmalakia]

Awesome! Have they made spinning up a Windows 11 ARM easy yet? I tried it a year or so ago and it was a nightmare to get working, where Parallels I was up and running in like 20 minutes.

I managed to get Windows up and running relatively easily, but then I just imported my Parallels VM.

 

[Reverend Benny]

Give it a year or two then Broadcom will force you to pay. That company destroys most things they acquire.

 

[Stella]

Wow... Parallels is not going to like this very much at all. lol

VMWare used to be free in the past too. Broadcom have screwed up their acquisition of VMWare, losing trust of VMWare's clients.

Parrellels is garbage.. IMO. I used to buy it yearly but got expensive for what I needed it for.

It's great to see VMWare free again, especially since Virtual Box is still in developer preview for Apple Silicon and development at snails pace.

 

[terraphantm]

Awesome! Have they made spinning up a Windows 11 ARM easy yet? I tried it a year or so ago and it was a nightmare to get working, where Parallels I was up and running in like 20 minutes.

It's been a while since I set it up, but I basically just loaded the ISO and installed like I would have Windows on an x86 machine

 

[mystery hill]

Have they made spinning up a Windows 11 ARM easy yet? I tried it a year or so ago and it was a nightmare to get working, where Parallels I was up and running in like 20 minutes.

Yes, it downloads Windows 11 and creates the VM just like Parallels.

 

[neuropsychguy]

Links are hard to find, to put it mildly. If you have a Broadcom account and are logged in, you can download Workstation Pro (Windows or Linux) from here, supposing the website is functioning: https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware Workstation Pro

Or, command line download: wget https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/ws/17.5.2/23775571/windows/core/VMware-workstation-17.5.2-23775571.exe.tar

Edit: Fusion Pro downloads: https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware Fusion

2nd edit: Someone has mirrors posted (it's best to do your own checksum verification of the files):

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1790436459477934392

 

[purplerainpurplerain]

Have no need for it anyway but I am imagine Linux users need a nice cheap option to use their apps on top of Macs and now it is free.

If there is no catch.

 

[fenderbass146]

It's been a while since I set it up, but I basically just loaded the ISO and installed like I would have Windows on an x86 machine

Finding an ISO for ARM Windows and and drivers when I last tried VMWare was a nightmare on my M1 Pro

 

[mystery hill]

The free Fusion Player had almost all the features of Fusion Pro.

These are the advanced features that are now available for free.

 

[jlc1978]

Links are hard to find, to put it mildly. If you have a Broadcom account and are logged in, you can download Workstation Pro (Windows or Linux) from here: https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware Workstation Pro

Edit: Fusion Pro downloads: https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware Fusion

they're busted too.

EDIT: Finally got to work.

 

[iStorm]

Awesome! Have they made spinning up a Windows 11 ARM easy yet? I tried it a year or so ago and it was a nightmare to get working, where Parallels I was up and running in like 20 minutes.

I just did this last night. There is a "Get Windows from Microsoft" option, which downloads Windows 11 for you. You then have to do the install yourself, which isn't too difficult. It's not quite as seamless as Parallels though, which does the install automatically. Also, Unity mode does not work on Apple Silicon Macs. (Unity mode is similar to Parallels' Coherence mode.)

 

[Slix]

This is cool. But, where in the world is the download link?? I feel like I'm tracking down a download on some sketchy malware-ridden website in 2008 again.

 

[poorcody]

I wonder if their plan is to run Parallels out of business and then jack up the prices...

 

[fenderbass146]

I just did this last night. There is a "Get Windows from Microsoft" option, which downloads Windows 11 for you. You then have to do the install yourself, which isn't too difficult. Not quite as seamless as Parallels though, which does the install automatically. Also, Unity does not work on Apple Silicon Macs. (Unity is basically Parallels' Coherence mode.)

Awesome, I'll have to give it a shot again. I could care less about Unity. I only use it in full screen mode. I in general isolate it as much as I can.

 

[Fender2112]

How does Fusion compare to Parallels? I've Parallels for many years and have been satisfied with it. I tried Fusion once and couldn't get it working 100%.

 

[psxp]

Ohhhh!! THis could be great news for me. I have an older version of Prarallels I bought but have not upgraded , and that Mac is on an older version of MacOS because of that. If This is a better alternative and works as well as Parallels I am in!

 

[darkpaw]

I've been trying to download this for two days now. The Broadcom website is utter trash. A corporate mess of page after page after page, and every download just fails. The most I've managed to get of this 750MB download is 22Kb.

 

[diego.caraballo]

Finding an ISO for ARM Windows and and drivers when I last tried VMWare was a nightmare on my M1 Pro

Check this thread:

New VMWare version for m-series Macs ... where to get Windows 11 ARM Preview ISO?

The user bogdanw in a previous post included a link to an ESD file. I downloaded it 2 days ago and converted to ISO using Dism++ as he suggested. It's very easy to do on a Windows machine (graphic UI instead of command line) With that ISO, the Windows welcome screen showed the "I don't have...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[djinn]

Awesome! Have they made spinning up a Windows 11 ARM easy yet? I tried it a year or so ago and it was a nightmare to get working, where Parallels I was up and running in like 20 minutes.

Yes.. Tried yesterday to test for a friend and it was very simple. Just have Fusion download the correct ISO (ARM) and good to go.