Updated February 2, 2016: Once you learn about our team and who we are, come take a trip down memory lane with us!
Yesterday morning, the Hosted UI team, responsible for VMware’s Workstation and Fusion products, woke up to find themselves out of a job. These products, despite being award-winning and profitable, are probably not long for this world.
I was not directly affected, in this way at least, as I had already left VMware in 2013 to work on Review Board full-time. However, many of my closest friends were, and a product I spent 9 years of my life on may have seen its last feature.
I could talk all day about how I think we got here, losing this amazing team and these fantastic products. I could point fingers and lash out at those I blame. I could talk about how furious this all makes me.
Instead, I’m going to talk about the team and what we built — and I don’t just mean our products.
Let me tell you about our team
I began working in Hosted UI on August 23rd, 2004, as a bright-eyed 20 year old freshly dropped out of college. Back then, it was a small team full of amazingly bright and passionate people, working days and nights to build a product they believed in.
The culture at that time within VMware was just so fun and energizing. People wanted to be there, and were proud of their work. Features were brainstormed over games of foosball or DDR, designs discussed over free lunches and beer bashes. In the evenings, we’d order dinner in and watch Simpsons, or whatever was on.
Company culture changed over the years, becoming more corporate and stiff, but not Hosted UI. We’d work all day, with the occasional interruption for YouTube videos or some laughs, and at night we went out and had some more. Poker nights, movie nights, video game nights. Dinners out together, sometimes several times a week.
Many people came and went over those years. The team changed, though, for a software company, a surprising number remained until the very end. Even those that left kept in touch, joining for poker nights or dinners here or there, coming to the dunkings (if you were getting married, you were going in the pond), birthday celebrations, and reunions. We formed alumni lists and kept in touch. We hung out on IRC outside of work.
Through deadlines and downtimes, stresses and celebrations, our team worked and played hard. We were dedicated, passionate, and if you’ll allow me, we were damn good at what we did.
I left this team two years ago, but it hasn’t really felt that way. I still saw them almost every week. Our team didn’t have to be in the same building or even the same company to stay a team.
Hosted UI may no longer exist at VMware, but that’s really VMware’s loss. They lost one of the most dedicated teams they could ever hope for, the kind of team you can’t just hire again.
We built some amazing products
Workstation
VMware Workstation was the first VMware product (back then, it was simply known as “VMware.”). At a time when dot-coms dominated the Super Bowl and Amazon was all about books, VMware Workstation was letting pioneers in the Linux world virtualize their Windows desktop so they could run Microsoft Office instead of StarOffice.
This product evolved over the years with over 15 major releases, and more features than I can count, running on every flavor of Linux and Windows. It did this without falling prey to the bloat of most long-running products, as we focused not only on making it a more powerful product but also a more usable product.
Workstation made it easy to run complex development and testing scenarios, creating and working with several virtual environments all at once across any number of host computers. It integrated your virtual desktops with your host desktop. It let you take snapshots at different moments in the lifetime of your VM, and jump between them at will. It helped you catch defects in your software through remote debugging and CPU/memory record/replay capabilities, it helped you test complex network setups with virtual LAN devices, and it worked as a powerful front-end for VMware’s Server, ESXi, and vSphere products. And, in the end, it also helped you simply run your Windows programs on Linux, your Linux programs on Windows, or whatever you wanted.
Internally at VMware, Workstation was also seen as an indispensable product, helping other teams test features and devices that would eventually become selling points on the more high-end vSphere product releases. With Workstation’s ease-of-install and ease-of-use, people could get set up in minutes and get right to work.
We loved our product. This was our baby. We took input from marketing, management, sales, customers, and so on, but in the end, we were given a lot of creative liberty over the features and design. We were also given time to address technical debt, helping to get our codebase in shape for future challenges.
I don’t know how many awards we received, but I think it was a lot. I do know that we had so many users who loved the product we poured our souls into. That meant a lot, and kept us motivated.
It was, let’s say, a challenge getting some parts of the company to really care about the product. Workstation made a lot of money, but not the hundreds of millions the company would have preferred. This, I believe, ultimately led to yesterday’s sad outcome… Still, I’m very proud of what we built.
Fusion
Workstation was a power user product built for Linux and Windows. In 2007, its sister product, Fusion for Mac, was released. This focused more on consumer usage, helping people run Office and other Windows apps on their Mac.
At the time, Apple had just moved to Intel processors, and were touting the ability to dual-boot between Windows and MacOS X, using a feature called Bootcamp. Fusion offered a better way by letting you run Windows and MacOS X at the same time. It was popular amongst students who needed to run Windows software for class on their shiny new MacBooks. It was popular amongst developers who needed to run or test Windows or Linux environments while on the go.
Fusion was a very different product in some ways than Workstation, but it was also very closely related. While it didn’t focus on many of the power user features that Workstation offered, it did take many of those features and reimagine them for more casual users. It also shared much of the core code that Workstation used, meaning that features could more easily be ported across and bugs fixed just once.
Fusion was a reimagining of what Workstation could have been, built for a different time and a different audience. Like Workstation, it was also built by a group of very loyal, dedicated, brilliant people, the Fusion segment of Hosted UI.
While I never worked directly on Fusion, I did get to see features I built for Workstation make their way there, and watched as our users got to try them for the first time on the Mac. It wasn’t the product I devoted my time to, but it was one I loved, and one I still use today.
And all the others
Our small team has built quite a lot over the years. Along with Workstation and Fusion, we’ve also built:
- Player: A slimmed-down product for simply running and interacting with VMs, without all the UI of Workstation
- VMRC: Originally a browser plugin and an SDK for embedding virtual machines in your browser or other applications (which was transitioned to one of the teams behind ESX a couple years ago and reworked into a native VM console app launched from the browser)
- Server: A free product built from Workstation that offered remote VM hosting and management)
- WSX: A web-based service for running VMs natively in your browser from anywhere
- AppCatalyst: A developer-focused, API-driven development and testing service that works with Docker
I’m pretty sure there’s more, but those are the highlights.
These, along with Workstation and Fusion, were built by a team typically no larger than about 20 people (at any given point in time).
We did good.
Time for the next adventure
VMware lost a lot of amazing people, and will be feeling that for some time to come, once they realize what they’ve done. It’s a shame. As for our team, well, I think everyone will do just fine. Some of the best companies in the Silicon Valley are full of ex-VMware members, many former Hosted UI, who would probably welcome the chance to work with their teammates again.
Workstation, Fusion, and our other products may survive in maintenance mode, or they may disappear. They may continue under a new team. It’s hard to say at this point what will happen. What I can say is that no matter what happens to them, they had an amazing run, and are something every one of us can be proud of the rest of our careers.
And we can be proud of the team, the friendships, and the strong bonds we built, now and through our next adventures.
Updated 27-January-2016 at 23:31 PM: Wow, this went viral. As of right now, we’re looking at around 40,000 unique viewers. I wrote this as a tribute for our team, and am amazed by the reaction it provoked. Everyone who loved our products and reached out to us to show your love, thank you. It means so much to us. Keep them coming!
I want to be clear that I have not worked there in years and do not have inside knowledge on what will happen to these products. I updated part of the post to make that a little more clear. VMware claims they’ll continue to exist, and I really hope that’s the case. I like to think what we built will continue to live on, and I hope VMware does it justice.
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Nicely done, my friend. This sums it up for me: “And we can be proud of the team, the friendships, and the strong bonds we built”. You and the rest of my coworkers are like a family to me. Professionally, my 8 years on the Workstation and Fusion teams were the best I could have asked for. Personally, the friends I’ve made while at VMware are some of the dearest and closest I’ve ever had. I will miss VMware. We tackled hard problems and came up with elegant solutions. But even more will I miss the special family we had in our little HostedUI group.
Wish you all the best, Jason.
Wish you all the very best, Jason. I was lucky enough to work with you way back in 2007-2009.
Well said. The silver lining here, I suppose, is that we may get to spend more time with our awesome friends – my company is hiring, as I’m sure many others are. In my book, you guys are welcome here any day.
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I am a long term customer of VMware Workstation and Fusion. I currently own several licenses for both products.
The first thing I want to mention is that the products just work. They provide an amazing immersive experience delivering smooth graphics and integrations here and there. I am deeply impressed by the overall product quality. I was literally infected by this invisible energy flow that could be read between the lines.
I am saddened to hear the news and it’s pretty sure that Workstation and Fusion are derailed in the long run. A bitter lesson to take: it is impossible to run the product without the people who hold the passion, expertise and overall vision.
What you described in the article is an inspirational working culture and a massive experience that created a huge momentum. Wouldn’t you mind to provide more stories and insights like folklore.org? Please don’t underestimate the importance of your achievements. I heard a someone’s saying that strikes the most: “The things we make for ourselves are lost when when we die. The things we do for others live in centuries”. This is so true.
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Great article. You indeed built things to be proud of. Wish you all the best in your next venture.
I’m totally in denial about this. Workstation and Fusion enable so much good stuff. Plus, they are the onramp that makes people want to buy vSphere. #soconfused
“And we can be proud of the team, the friendships, and the strong bonds we built”
Add: the products.
Fusion is essential to my workflow, and I truly don’t know how I’ll work without it if–as it seems–it’s about to die. Parallels is too buggy in my testing, and VirtualBox lacks adequately robust USB support. Fusion has been dependable and comparatively well-supported.
This sucks, for users as well as for the team.
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I just wanted to congratulate you and all the team on the fabulous work you did. I bought my first license for VMware Workstation Linux 2.0, back in 2001 ! And use Workstation and Fusion on a daily basis (See my latest blog article on http://éé.net/ak6), it’s just a critical part of my infrastructure!
So I’m sad for you. And I just wanted to say I love you for what you made available for so many people worldwide 😉
Does it mean that VMware will develop pretty much only vSphere and vCenter from now on? That would be shame, I have been using Workstation for years, and it always has been a good goddamn product – I can think of very few applications so well engineered, you guys did a great job on it.
Ah the joys of corporate America. They can’t help themselves but to make stupid decisions.
As a guy who uses these products every day at work, I hope Microsoft snatch you up to help improving hyper-v
We are edging the time where hyper-v becomes a viable alternative for big enterprises and I think you can give it quite a nudge 🙂
Best of luck
I’m a VMware vExpert because I did my Home Labs using Workstation, or even Fusion sometimes, you helped so many Companies out there, not just power users, I saw some environments using Workstation at really high scale, insane but working!
You guys did just amazing job all this time. I just can say, thank you and good luck!
This is horrifying to me: I *live* in VMware Workstation, and have since version 2. ! Without it, I literally couldn’t do my job! And I know a lot of others in the same boat.
I’m sure we can migrate to something else, but that’s going to be painful.
I have been using VMware since its inception, and it has been & still is a superior product among its contemporaries. Its a shame when something so cherished,creative and beautiful is trampled down by Management because its not profitable enough. Its a fitting tribute to all HostedUI team.
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I have been using VMware since its inception, and it has been & still is a superior product among its contemporaries. Its a shame when something so cherished,creative and beautiful is trampled down by Management because its not profitable enough. Its a fitting tribute to the HostedUI team.
Its really no wonder now, why apps like VMware Player and Fusion just worked so well despite doing really complicated things. Kudos to your team for really being the best champions of your product and making the computing world a much better place (this is what happens, for anyone else interested, when keeping developers happy and engaged takes precedence over keeping salesmen happy and engaged).
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I just cannot believe a company would be so stupid as to let all of that talent go…wow!!
Big thanks to you all 🙂 I was one of those early users. This software changed life of many people for better. Sorry to hear bad news. it’s bad move to shut down this products and your team. This software is living ad for whole company, for many of us first step into virtualisation.
I still remember when you first blogged about WSX and I was totally floored by how technically impressive it was at the time. It’s really sad that VMware is gutting a team that is clearly so passionate and innovative.
I remember that well 🙂 I wrote the post, went to bed (late), and woke up with a phone call. “You have to come in! You’re doing a radio interview in an hour!”
Half-asleep, I reached for my phone as I got dressed and saw your post, and others, all sharing my blog post, which I don’t believe I even really shared yet. Made for quite an exciting morning 🙂
It really is a shame… I hope VMware someday realizes what it lost.
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From what I have seen, this is just par for the course from vmware. They have no loyalty to their employees. They pay for it in other ways. It keeps the brightest employees out of their reach and costs them dearly later on maintaining a legacy of information that walked out the door.
A lot of familiar names in the comments here. My regards to the folks that were still around. Kinda felt like the writing was on the wall when all the Fusion and WS QA in Palo Alto got laid off, but the products held on! Fusion 8 is beautiful and this is a sad day.
Bunch of fucking schmucks. I love Fusion and Workstation. They save me boatloads of time every single day. I hope those affected find places where they can be passionate again.
Well crap, this makes me genuinely angry. I still rely on Workstation on a regular basis any time I want to experiment at home. Thanks to everyone who worked on the product, if it does go away I will definitely miss it. So uh…since I won’t use Virtual Box, because Oracle is…Oracle…anyone else have good recommendations for a replacement? 🙂
Thank you Christian!
As a member of WS QA Team (no such thing as FORMER in my mind) I appreciate your post and so happy to be part of GREAT WORKSTATION/FUSION TEAM!
Please read the article. The product will be supported and future developments are already planned according to a post by VMware. So thinking for a replacement would not be a good idea. It’s sad to know that the developers are no more a part of this beautiful product. We can still use the product and get support. This product and it’s greatness will live on.
I like the fact that future developments are planned. But who is going to develop them? If you ask me then I would say that no developers literally means no developments. Yep, corp suits may try to hire some new people without the expertise. Again, this plan sounds too shaky for me to consider buying new VMware licenses.
Apparently, this is related to Dell’s highly leveraged purchase of VMware’s parent company. As Meg Whitman predicted, that was going to kill innovation.
As for future work, it is rumored that they intend to do further “development” with cheap programmers from Asia and Eastern Europe.
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At work everyone from testing and devs to marketing has Workstation and most use it day in day out.
Thanks for the insight into what sounds like a really cool team. I wish the best of luck and many great opportunities to those who were laid off.
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Pretty sad to hear about Fusion. I started at VMware in 2006 and happened to join right at the time when Apple announce the “shocking” news they were moving to x86 chips. Weeks later there was discussion about porting workstation to Mac and I was able to test some of the original alpha code. I cant remember the code name at the time but I stayed on the mailing list for a while. Im no longer at VMware but it was one of my favorite pieces of software!
I bought a licence for the first Alpha release, ‘cos I knew ‘we’ needed just such a thing
I just did ditto for 8
It’s been a great ride
Thanks team
Go on the even better stuff, you good things
A TWEET FROM @vmw_workstation
Our commitment to deliver leading virtualization on Windows and Linux remains unchanged.
Nice. Comittment without a team. You have a product with no developers. You have nothing, VMWare. Also we don’t trust you because you just did a stupid thing. I’m moving away from VMWare products wherever possible, on the desktop and on the server. Goodbye VMWare.
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This is not possible 🙁 I’ve been using VMware Player for more than 5 years and I think that Linux kernel and this virtualization software are the 2 best softwares on the world. I’m using Windows as a host and Fedora as a guest, because I need bash, gcc, vim, git, sed, grep,…….. to do my work. I’m basically a cripple without virtualization. I can remember those dark days when I had 2 native OSs on my PC and if I wanted to go to Linux I had to restart my PC and boot it from Linux. But under Linux some programs, some drivers were not working. So back again to Windows…. :(:(:( I absolutely have no idea what would I do without this free tool 🙁
A very remarkable thing that this program was only better and better. It happens to many softwares that there’s a new release and they are fucked up. They replace or hide or disable functionalities (see MS Word, Firefox, Gnome 3…..) or there’s a new bunch of bugs. But this soft was amazing. I couldn’t find any thing that I would do differently. After installing VMware Tools it was a full OS.
Please keep this treasure and save it for the future.
Great product that changed the way the world works – testing and development was different before VMWare. So slow. This article was great insight into the team that made our lives better. A sad announcement but best wishes to a talented group of people.
Thanks for this tribute. I was also at VMware for 9 years, starting on the Vmkernel team that built one of the first releases of ESX, and saw it grow from a team of 200 in Stanford Research Park, with personal introductions of every new employee, and pool dunkings for folks getting married, to a big corporation of over 10k. Your team was one of the most dedicated and legendary teams at VMware. So sad to see it go.
Thank you for the kind words 🙂 It’s really nice hearing from other people at VMware and reminiscing about how things were.
I’ve been a loyal Fusion user since 2008. Fusion is what convinced several colleagues of mine to go to the Mac when they got fed up with Windows machines. I proudly buy each and every new-release license(s) because of the phenomenal quality and support that was given.
When I had problems with Fusion/Windows, the engineers actually invited me to their labs in Silicon Valley and sit next to them to work the problem out. That was support (to me) that was unheard of. I was in awe at their commitment and pride in what they did.
This angers me immensely. VMware Corp is making a huge, huge mistake. I hope the former engineers band together and make Fusion / Workstation a reality under a new company. I would be first in line to buy that product, as well as many colleges of mine.
It’s a sad day.
This is such a shame to read and makes me disliking VMware more and more…
VMware is destroying their biggest fan base; all the computer geeks around the world. They are the ones making the difference; they are the reason that VMware has the right to exist.
I’ve used workstation from version 3. You guys from the product team made such a big difference for me and to the computer industry. For me it was already a big loss when VMware decided to fire Diane Green, and then Mendel also was lost. I’m afraid VMware will be a memory from the past in a couple of years from now. Such great products, such a bad management.
Ah well… this is what happens when there’s capitalism I guess…
I truly hope, that the developers will continue on their own, and develop still great products. Remember, you don’t need VMware, VMware actually needed you!
Thank you, Richard 🙂
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The execs deserve a 21 gun salute… aimed at the back of their dishonest heads.
While I appreciate support, I’d wish no harm on anyone from all this. My hope is that we can focus on the positive things our team has done, and keep that memory alive.
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Several days later, still as shocked as when I woke up reading the tweet from @esxTopGuru about this mishap. Still in denial, but it is what it is.
Thanks everybody that has been on the VMware Workstation/Fusion team. The products you have built are still a major part of my daily workflow. You all will be severely missed.
Absolute legends , such sad / infuriating / inexplicable / perplexing news. I’ve used VMware since day 1 and never ever looked back. Without this software I’d never have progressed anywhere near as far in my career as I did.
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Ooooh nooo! Say it isn’t so. I was jaw droppingly amazed when I saw 1.0 and could see the VM of everything was the future of everything. Its been one of my mainstay tools ever since. Many similar free and not free tools have followed since, but none compares to the feature qualities and reliability of Workstation. Its always been ahead of its time and now we know why. So sad its been stripped of its culture and I fear its future. Thanks for telling us the rest of the story.
Disclosure – EMCer here.
Wow – a huge surprise. I spend a good chunk of every day in Workstation and Fusion, and have been using them for a long time (feels like almost a decade in Workstation).
Solid code, solid products, and solid execution by the team – something to be damn proud of, and no one can ever take that away.
The world turns, and I’ve seen (at any place – in VMware, in EMC), sometimes the restructuring monster buzz saw hit people/teams that perhaps they shouldn’t (affects big companies more – as top-down goals get disconnected from the real impact). As a customer, as a partner – I’m so, so genuinely sorry.
Chad
wow, that makes me deeply sad.. i was working with the first VMware produt decades ago… still remember the “undo my day” Shirt ! Please, VMware, undo that day.. for al the devs, for me and for all the other customers !
All the best to everyone affected.
Workstation changed the world, it _was_ the gateway drug that got a mass majority of VMware customers to embrace this fad of “virtualization”. It was absolutely my gateway drug, it saved me from a horrible life of living with a Windows workstation that crashed at least daily due to crappy driver support from the manufacturer. If we all think back to what Windows driver support was like in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, especially from the likes of Dell, it was a wretched time. I had gone from .COMs that were 90% *nix based to one that was a bit too Windows oriented, Workstation saved me by letting me run a reliable host platform (Linux) with Windows running as a VM…and the VM was so much more stable without the crappy hardware drivers. This in turn lead to the first shadow initiative to migrate physical hosts to GSX, which saved my team from a lot of nights and weekends keeping antiquated systems that had regular hardware failures alive.
I know I am not alone in this experience, it is amazing how quickly a company can abandon what started it all though. You have plenty to be proud of, the reality is that Workstation is what created the initial level of trust with Sysadmins (and free Server edition) that got VMware to be what it is today (or perhaps what it was 4 months ago?).
Best of luck to you all!
This is sad news. I started using WorkStation back in 2003, and soon after that got at job at VMware, where I stayed for 11 years (I retired in June). I still use WorkStation, and I love the product. I’d hate to see it disappear, but I can’t see how it can survive now.
Hey Mate,
Sad to hear about this. Loved Fusion on my mac, really made the difference for my studies and for my profession. Please pass on my gratitude to your former colleagues, you guys have done such a marvellous and outstanding job! Thank you again and keep aiming for the top!
Cheers,
Alessio
Hey Christian! Great tribute! I’m saddened but not surprised by this short sighted decision. It’s not the same company we joined when it had less than a thousand employees. I’ll always remember Hosted UI fondly as it was. My best wishes to you all.
Thanks Novey 🙂 It’s really great hearing from you! What are you up to these days, and are you on Facebook? Would love to catch up.
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switch from Workstation to Virtualbox
guess I will have to switch from Fusion to Parallels on my iMac soon too.
My guts feeling told me that Dell/EMC will slowly exit the consumer market by killing off Workstation and Fusion, and then focusing their money and efforts on the enterprise, cloud computing and datacenter markets instead with their ESXi, VSphere, VCenter, Horizon View and etc.
Just my 2 cents worth…
I was so stunned when i read the news about the complete layoff of the VMware Workstation Team. I’ve been using Workstation now for over 10 Years and it is and has been one of the few pieces of software i absolutely view as a central core product of all my daily work. From testing/developing/security/isolation/experimenting, it all relies on this awesome thing called virtualization. The Start-Icon for VMware Workstation even is located before Windows-Explorer/Total Commander in my Taskbar, and you surely understand what THAT means :), heck, maybe i should just schedule it for autostart everytime i boot my machine up anyway.
It makes me so angry when i see these types of management suites destroying a product and/or team that are the very BASIS of what gave birth to the whole company-success in the first place. VMware wouldn’t exist without it’s roots in Workstation. The whole way i work today and do complex development/infrastructure tasks on my Desktop are only possible because over a decade ago i found something wonderfull called VMware Workstation. It was a relevation to me when i instantly realized what powerfull possibilites this technology could give me – on a ordinary PC.
This short-sighted decision made by some suits in upper management cripples the trust of so many power-users and long-time customers of VMware. I always felt the guys at VMware where what some would call “smart-ass” geniuses. And then something happens when companies grow too large….more suits come in and the smart-ass geniuses are slowly replaced by i-don’t-know-what-i’m-doing-and-i-don’t-understand-the-implications-of-my-decisions managers.
It’s just sad to see things like this happening. I know i can work with the Workstation Product we have right know for a long time on, but i wonder what the future holds for this Productline. Looking at the attitude of VMware Management, i have a bad feeling about this.
Cudos to the amazing team that build this great, IT-world-changing product.
Some guys have lost their jobs, but VMware lost something much more bigger than just some human resources.
Greetings,
A Long-Term-Workstation-User 🙂
I have been using vmware products for years. Recently I had to teach Linux to elementary school kids. I spun up a cent OS vm on Fusion and within minutes they were all doing SSH to this VM hosted off my Mac!! You guys simply made amazing products. Not sure about the management decision to not sell these products anymore. Time would tell if they made the wise or weird choice. Best of luck to you!
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Nokia (Microsoft), Apple and others have made the same short term thinking mistake. Mass consumers whether they be individuals or giant corporations, need the input and creativity to go forward. Some of it from those who tinker with the products, too. It is NOT all profit line based. Airplanes do not fly well when there are No metallurgical engineers who know about turbine blades on staff. Hope some of you start your own ventures and others make Parallels what it should be. Same thing happened in the 1980s in the Shoe Business — Kangaroo the shoes with pockets. I remember someone among your group who should remember centipedes killing a DG Minicomputer. Now We are playing with $5.00 computers from Wales. All the best future to all of you.
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A sad day indeed. I hope Vmware continues maintaining Vmware Workstation ad Fusion.
Thank you very much for an amazing product. I’ve been using it for 8+ years & has been serving me well.
Best of wishes to everyone in your team. Warm regards from Kuwait.
ex-vmWare person, here..excellent post. I actually teared up reading it because I could relate to what you express,here. I’ve had a relationship of some kind with vmware products since 1998 until leaving the company as an employee in 2012 and I am familiar with all of this teams products. Just..well written, well said, well put.
Hi all,
Thank you for all your efforts and these wonderful pieces of software. I just can not live without it
What do you think of the March 23th post below from VMware Fusion Communities forum, I would like to believe it is not some bullshit….
….
One thing to note however is that the only team affected was the UI team.
All core hypervisor, virtual device and platform layer development remains unchanged. This includes graphics, networking, USB devices, and everything that doesn’t fall explicitly under ‘UI’.
Further, the old UI team is actively transitioning the code knowledge to the new team directly, it’s not a matter of ‘go read the docs’.
Lastly, many of the key UI developers are still with VMware working on other projects and will be able to share their expertise if the new team requires it in the future.
While we’re on the topic… The new team is actually twice as large as the old and more specialized in the areas where we want Fusion to grow. We have gained support for our updated roadmap the past few weeks, and while I can’t get into the details yet, we (the product team) are incredibly excited about the direction that we’re taking the product in, and that direction is largely drawn with feedback from users like you and everyone else who has chimed in on this thread.
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I was to buy my license for Workstation 12 pro but now i am hesitating…-
Those were good days weren’t they. (Well. Some of us in vmx thought you guys were the new comers ruining the company.) Thank you for the article!
As a Fusion user since first release, I just like to thank you and the rest of the team for this amazing piece of software! In my opinion Fusion v4.1 was the best version for many reasons.
Man, you and your team did a *fantastic* job. Been a VMWare guy since v3, canNOT live without it! I guess I’ll have to migrate now, I recognize “corporate speak” for “we just killed your product but we think we can fool you – again – into not believing that…”. , will they never learn?
I still have trouble wrapping my mind around the…what was the phrase…”Galactically Stupid” decision to fire the teams that have made the lives of SO many developers (such as myself) several orders of magnitude easier. I mean, I think that my feet are wet and I can see the Nile river…(I’m really in denial) about this. VMWare has been a corner stone of my existence ever since a colleague introduced me to the product. Don’t know what I’ll do but I guess I better get to looking….
Thanks to you and your team for making my life so much easier. Best of luck to all of you!
I remember around 2000 getting my hands on a beta release of some software called just VMWare (I think it was version 0.8) – our team loved it, even though it kept crashing. Since seeing the light I’ve been using the latest versions and recommending them to every company I worked for as it was true devops way before that phrase was coined, and it really was a very good product to work with. I was surprised to hear of the products demise, entirely due to a bad decision no doubt, but I’m glad to hear that it has since been reinstated for now.
What can I say other than thanks for your contribution to one of my all-time favourite software tools, and I hope the next iterations remain just as compelling.