VMware Communities
matthewls
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

workstation 12 has no unity mode for linux hosts or guests

It's in the release notes :

"The following features have reached end of life in Workstation 12 Pro and have been removed:

  • Unity mode on Linux guest and host operating systems "

This is a terrible decision and will keep me from buying the upgrade. I use linux to host windows guests in unity mode and very much want this feature.


Thanks,

Matthew

54 Replies
derekhp
Contributor
Contributor

Yes, I am going to miss Unity mode too.

Reply
0 Kudos
bryanlharris
Contributor
Contributor

Hello all,

I am considering VMware workstation because of the "shared device" option but I like Unity also.  I want to share my smart card reader without removing from host.  Is there a virtualization that supports both Unity type of feature and shared device?

Thanks in advance.

V/r,

Bryan

Reply
0 Kudos
astorey
Contributor
Contributor

VMWare, please bring this feature back.  It would also be nice if it was certified to work on Linux Mint.

Reply
0 Kudos
peterjg
Contributor
Contributor

I perform most of my development work in VMWare workstation using a Linux guest.

The only reason I don't use Unity - is that it does not work. So 'rarely used' ???

--PeterG

Reply
0 Kudos
jpaulr
Contributor
Contributor

Please bring back Unity Mode for VMware Workstation 12 Pro.

Reply
0 Kudos
daniellange83
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Vmware,

I also use Unity on Linux and would very much like it back, currently I will just stay on version 11, please let us know if you don't plan to implement it again then I will have to start looking for alternatives I can't use version 11 for ever.

If you receive some kind of stats from the users and by that have concluded it is not in use it might be because a lot of it pros does not choose to send usage data back to you especially people running linux.

Except from the missing Unity your products rocks Smiley Happy

Br

Daniel

Reply
0 Kudos
ZWayne
Contributor
Contributor

I wasted money on Workstation 12. Meanwhile Virtualbox for desktop users continues to be much better. I don't get the advantage of vmware any more over virtualbox for desktop users. Virtualbox just works, especially with Seamless mode. I rarely user vmware any more.

Reply
0 Kudos
markd89
Contributor
Contributor

I just wanted to bump the thread. I installed Player 7 and have Unity for my Windows Guest/Linux Host.

I think VMWare should rethink this decision. As Microsoft continues to extend it's advertisement platform AKA Windows 10, I'd see more sophisticated users looking at Linux (or OSX) for their desktop. They may still need access to some Windows legacy apps and Unity is a VERY nice way to do this.

If they implement Player for their friends to achieve the same thing, VMWare sees no immediate revenue, but you dariusd do see increased mindshare.

People thinking to implement this are also the kind of people who influence corporate buy decisions.

I'd think development costs would be pretty low compared to the benefits.

Reply
0 Kudos
dariusd
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I'd think development costs would be pretty low compared to the benefits.

Getting Unity working on Linux has a moderate development cost.

Getting Unity working reliably on all supported combinations of Linux and non-Linux host OS and guest OS has an extraordinary development cost, once you account for all the possible window managers and their quirks (each of which might happen on the host and/or the guest at the same time!), all the possible guest applications and their quirks, all the little things that can happen in a different order or different timing on different OSes (mouse moves and keyboard focus, drag-and-drop [with or without modifier keys, and possibly from one guest OS window to another], window drag, window minimize/restore/reorder), and then once you factor in multi-monitor configurations, unpredictable window chrome and borderless/transparent windows, the need to still be able to suspend/resume the virtual machine in any of these configurations, the ongoing arrival of new guest OSes and host OSes (and their quirks), etc...  The complexity quickly multiplies, leaving us with the decision between incurring exponentially greater feature development costs to ship something that's closer to "perfect", or dealing with the support costs and unhappy customers resulting from a feature that would never seem to be truly dependable, or making the difficult decision to remove the feature.

I admit I was a bit shocked when I heard that it was being removed.  But I also I saw the succession of incredibly-frustrating bug reports and support requests we were receiving because someone's Tier-1 application was abusing its window system in a way that gave Unity heartburn (but just happened to work fine without Unity in the way), or someone else's Tier-1 application was expecting the mouse/keyboard/window/desktop events in *this* order but the host OS was passing the events to us in *that* order.

I trust that the relevant product management folks here had all the available usage information, defect information and support stats in front of them at the time they made the decision.

It's sad to see it go.  Even though I rarely used it myself (<irony>it often wasn't dependable enough for my liking</irony>), I'd still like to see it back someday, because I know that there were folks using it, and just because it was utterly cool to see it working.  (Aaaaaand this is why I'm not a product manager...)

Cheers,

--

Darius

Reply
0 Kudos
markd89
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for your message. You make good points.

Maybe a compromise would be to offer support for a limited set of combinations Something like supporting the latest Ubuntu/Gnome as a Host and Win 7-10 guests - just an idea. I see right away that's (at least) 4 combinations. Then if someone gets some other combination working, good for them, but not supported. Given that or nothing, I think people would be grateful....

Even just a setting (perhaps hidden) to activate what was there before would be helpful. Even flawed would be better than the alternative - Virtualbox's Seamless which is just not the same.

Overall, agree that best would be full support but I see now how that's a good bit of development and QA. Hopefully it makes sense in the future.

Thanks,

Mark


Reply
0 Kudos
jfinner2
Contributor
Contributor

I too cannot express the profound stupidity that removing Unity Support for  Linux OS's.  This from a company who did this using the justification in that it wasn't used enough but yet leads the market in virtualization, with what you may ask A LINUX BASED HYPER VISOR.  If I wasn't re-reimbursed by my employer for this software, which by the way is one if not the largest Tech company in the game, I would demand a refund.

I will be following up on this with VMW from the people I know at the company, granted they are not on the VMWDesktop team, but submitting a Feature Enhancement/ Request/Re-Addition for this. 

IMHO DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THIS, Vmware needs to be sent a message.  I am sure they would be surprised to find out that the majority of their user base for this product is NOT THE HOME USER rather Coders, Testers, and those who need to Lab up testing locally to their PC when away from a real farm. ! !

Reply
0 Kudos
johnrco
Contributor
Contributor

I was not happy with this announcement either.  It was a major pain to get/keep it working. I also did not love having to use KDE to get it to work right but I did love having it and being able to use my Linux guest while in windows and enjoy the best of both worlds.  The feature made it easy to troubleshoot at work using the tools available by default in Linux rather than try to mash them into windows.  Personally - I think the effort vs rewards of the tool fell short in the bean counter arena and they thought they were spending more to work on it then it was going to cost them when they got rid of it.  Bottom line for me was the only reason I stayed on the upgrade train was to see where the Unity feature was going and if it would ever be fully functional/seamless with Gnome.  I looked into upgrading again, looked for changes in this feature, and saw it was removed.  So, I did not upgrade as result.

Reply
0 Kudos
mhanwell
Contributor
Contributor

I just upgraded my laptop, and was trying to figure out how to enable Unity mode. After a quick search I found this thread, and I must say it is extremely disappointing to see it was intentionally removed. It was a great feature, and something that made VMWare much more compelling, I am not sure I will upgrade beyond what I have already paid for if this feature is gone for good, it is mainly this and the OpenGL support that I am here for.

Reply
0 Kudos
WTF2
Contributor
Contributor

bleep?

I need Unity for Linux, have OSX Big Sur, Fusion 11 does not run here.
Is VMware trying to bleep me? This can't be true!
Then I'll try Virtual Box - if it works, VMware will never see me as a customer again.

moderator edit by wila: bleep

Reply
0 Kudos
innatepirate
Contributor
Contributor

Bumping this old thread. Why remove this? Why not leave it in and hide the setting?

Reply
0 Kudos