In an unexpected but highly welcomed move for IT professionals, educators, and hobbyists alike, VMware announced that the newly released Workstation 17.6.2 Pro no longer requires a license key.
In other words, this popular virtualization platform has effectively gone free, making it more accessible than ever before. According to VMware’s official release notes, the latest version removes the commercial, educational, and personal use licensing barrier, enabling a broader audience to tap into its powerful features without the need to purchase a key.
Just a quick reminder: early last month, Broadcom announced that two of their flagship products, VMware Workstation (Linux, Windows) and Fusion (macOS), are now free for personal use. Now, as a Christmas present, they’re taking things a step further—something we can’t help but applaud!
In addition to this striking licensing change, the update also brings a range of bug fixes designed to enhance stability and performance. Though VMware has not singled out every improvement by name, they have emphasized that these fixes address long-standing requests from their user community.
However, it is worth noting that some known issues remain. In particular, the multi-monitor feature may still encounter glitches in certain hardware and topology setups. Unfortunately, there is no known workaround at this time, so users who rely heavily on multiple displays should proceed with caution.
VMware has acknowledged that these setbacks exist and will likely continue working toward a resolution in future updates.
On a more positive note, several major stumbling blocks have now been resolved. For instance, Linux users can breathe a sigh of relief: after applying snapshot operations through Snapshot Manager, VMware Workstation for Linux previously tended to crash.
This inconvenience has finally been addressed, meaning smoother workflows and improved stability for Linux-based virtualization. Windows 11 hosts have also received some love, as virtual machines on this platform should no longer become unresponsive after unlocking the host.
Additionally, persistent issues on Linux hosts caused by the kcompactd kernel process have been resolved, ensuring that virtual machines no longer freeze up after extended use.
For more information, refer to the VMware Workstation Pro 17.6.2 release notes.
Lastly, as always, we’ve got you covered! You can dive right into the latest features of the new VMware Workstation Pro release. To make things easy, we’ve updated our guides for Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora users, ensuring a smooth and hassle-free installation experience.
you cannot download anything off Broadcom – their shit platform does not work
Can we finally build the kernel modules on Ubuntu and it's derivatives?
Simply follow our guide, "How to Install VMware Workstation on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS," and you'll be all set. The modules (I guess you mean vmmon and vmnet) are now being built seamlessly in the background, so there's nothing to worry about. 🙂
installation on ubuntu was pretty easy. No workarounds required.
Everytime I have attempted to use the installer, since 16.x, I get failures compiling the kernel modules and have to use a workaround I found on github. Since so many people have the issue.