6 ms·

Out of the loop: what's up with VMware?

by yuvadam 11mo ago

ofrzeta 11mo ago
Broadcom bought VMware and changed the pricing.
nikanj 11mo ago
Bought out by Broadcom, who realized if you increase prices by 10x and lose 75% of customers, you end with more revenue and less support costs
- chanandler_bong 11mo ago
  Hock Tan's only goal is to increase stock value. Period. At the expense of anything and everything else, stock value.
  - RachelF 11mo ago
    That's how he gets paid - increasing short term stock price. "Show me the incentives and I'll show you the results" - Charlie Munger
  - wayeq 11mo ago
    aka fiduciary duty
    - jen20 11mo ago
      That is absolutely not what fiduciary duty means, unless you missed scare quotes and a /s.
AzN1337c0d3r 11mo ago
Bought by Broadcom, now implementing classic strategy of leveraging vendor lock-in to milk customers.
- Agingcoder 11mo ago
  The increase is massive ( I’ve heard x5 over existing contracts in some places )
  - maartenh 11mo ago
    Ah, 5x? At $WORK, the low code tool vendor that is used to build the monolith (and that of our sister company) is bought by a private equity firm. Our sister company will face a 7x increase. Another fun thing is that the license is based on a percentage of licensing cost to their customers. Their game is clearly to squeeze very hard for a few years, and then deprecate the product. I can't imagine that there are companies that are fine with such price hikes.
- amelius 11mo ago
  Fork?
  - dijit 11mo ago
    Are you under the impression that VMware is free open source software?
    - amelius 11mo ago
      Yes, I was, actually.
      - dijit 11mo ago
        fair enough, you're one of today's (un)lucky 10,000! (https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/) VMWare has always been proprietary, there's been some handwringing a few times about the fact that they borrow from FOSS quite a bit. https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-developer-abandons-vmware-lawsuit/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-developer-abandons-vmwar...
- garganzol 11mo ago
  Not only that, add dip downs in quality. For instance, VMware was famous for stuter-less graphics, now it's a 15 FPS show. Milking customers is already a thin ice but in combination with declining quality it's a death sentence.
belter 11mo ago
Broadcom competing with Oracle for most hated company prize: https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1jfumvw/broadcom_is_officially_the_mafia_now/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1jfumvw/broadcom_... https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/22/euro_cloud_body_ecco_says_broadcom_licensing_unfair/ https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/22/euro_cloud_body_ecco_...
- leoh 11mo ago
  Maybe Oracle can buy Broadcom and settle it
esseph 11mo ago
Imagine seeing a 300% or more cost increase for no particular reason.
- jack_pp 11mo ago
  the reason is greed, old as time

Out of the loop: what's up with VMware?

by yuvadam 11mo ago

Out of the loop: what's up with VMware?

ofrzeta 11mo ago

Broadcom bought VMware and changed the pricing.

nikanj 11mo ago

Bought out by Broadcom, who realized if you increase prices by 10x and lose 75% of customers, you end with more revenue and less support costs

chanandler_bong 11mo ago
Hock Tan's only goal is to increase stock value. Period. At the expense of anything and everything else, stock value.
- RachelF 11mo ago
  That's how he gets paid - increasing short term stock price. "Show me the incentives and I'll show you the results" - Charlie Munger
- wayeq 11mo ago
  aka fiduciary duty
  - jen20 11mo ago
    That is absolutely not what fiduciary duty means, unless you missed scare quotes and a /s.

AzN1337c0d3r 11mo ago

Bought by Broadcom, now implementing classic strategy of leveraging vendor lock-in to milk customers.

Agingcoder 11mo ago
The increase is massive ( I’ve heard x5 over existing contracts in some places )
- maartenh 11mo ago
  Ah, 5x? At $WORK, the low code tool vendor that is used to build the monolith (and that of our sister company) is bought by a private equity firm. Our sister company will face a 7x increase. Another fun thing is that the license is based on a percentage of licensing cost to their customers. Their game is clearly to squeeze very hard for a few years, and then deprecate the product. I can't imagine that there are companies that are fine with such price hikes.
amelius 11mo ago
Fork?
- dijit 11mo ago
  Are you under the impression that VMware is free open source software?
  - amelius 11mo ago
    Yes, I was, actually.
    - dijit 11mo ago
      fair enough, you're one of today's (un)lucky 10,000! (https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/) VMWare has always been proprietary, there's been some handwringing a few times about the fact that they borrow from FOSS quite a bit. https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-developer-abandons-vmware-lawsuit/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-developer-abandons-vmwar...
garganzol 11mo ago
Not only that, add dip downs in quality. For instance, VMware was famous for stuter-less graphics, now it's a 15 FPS show. Milking customers is already a thin ice but in combination with declining quality it's a death sentence.

belter 11mo ago

Broadcom competing with Oracle for most hated company prize: https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1jfumvw/broadcom_is_officially_the_mafia_now/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1jfumvw/broadcom_... https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/22/euro_cloud_body_ecco_says_broadcom_licensing_unfair/ https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/22/euro_cloud_body_ecco_...

leoh 11mo ago
Maybe Oracle can buy Broadcom and settle it

esseph 11mo ago

Imagine seeing a 300% or more cost increase for no particular reason.

jack_pp 11mo ago
the reason is greed, old as time