What does Workstation 9 actually offer?

[Faize]

After reading the release notes, it sounds like most of the new features in WS 9, such as Linux OpenGL support, are things that were actually introduced in WS 8.0.x

Is VMware trying to charge us $120 for Windows 8, USB 3.0, and a bunch of experimental features like Hyper-V that they don't even officially support?

[onoski]

Good question as this is the most meaningful answer I have found and came across: http://www.infoworld.com/d/virtualization/vmware-workstation-9-all-about-windows-8-200821

[WoodyZ]

The URL is malformed and should be: http://www.infoworld.com/d/virtualization/vmware-workstation-9-all-about-windows-8-200821

[onoski]

Thanks for the info and correction.

[jpearso]

Hello

Its cost me 106.32 € (tax included) to update to v9 from v8.

The new v9 verion installed perfectly with zero problems on the soon to be released openSUSE v12.2 which is my main OS at home (I am running RC 2.5 or something close). I had previously applied a patch on v12.2 so that v8 would compile and run ok but simply installing new v9 bundle is / was much easiler.

My view is that for my money I get free updates to all fixes for the next 11 months (i.e. basically trouble free sailing for another year)

I have not yet had the time to really play with Windows8 (on a Linux host) on v9. I do remember however that under v8, I would lose my Windows8 installation (i.e. a no boot situation) each time after I ran the Windows update. Never had the time to follow up on the problem however.

Regards

[Faize]

@onoski: Thanks for the link. I guess there's no reason to upgrade unless/until I have Windows 8 guests.

@jpearso: I've been using Workstation since 6.0, and I've never experienced trouble free sailing. Every single release has had major issues, such as this one which was introduced in 7.1 and has yet to be fixed in WS 8.0.4 + Ubuntu 12.04, which is a fully supported scenario.

[louyo]

For me, it meant a non working VMWare Workstation. I am running on Ubuntu 11.04 and kernal 2.6.38,  so it should be vanilla. The pre release installed and ran fine. Now I get a signal 11, blah blah. I had to manually unstall to go back to version 8. I have emailed sales and asked for a refund of my $190 for 2 licenses. blah.

Lou

[WoodyZ]

You been around here long enough to know you should run the 30 day trial before making a purchase!

[louyo]

True, but I stupidly thought the release version would install and run if the pre-release version did. Maybe wait for 9.1

Lou

[Sloth77]

Well, I've only been testing a few hours - but the OpenGL performance on a Linux (Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit) guest on a Windows (Win7 64-bit) host seems to be *significantly* improved.