VMware Workstation 17 Release Date?

[whorsfall]

Hi,

Is there any planned or approximate release date for Vmware Workstation 17?

Thanks,

Ward

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hi,

First off.. I don't work for VMware and second, VMware does not normally comment on time lines.

With that out of the way.

Normally every year the major version number is incremented by 1 and that tends to be around August-November.

But there's exceptions.. and we had one last year, it was incremented by 0.2 for both Workstation as well as Fusion.
See also: https://blogs.vmware.com/workstation/2021/10/workstation-16-2-now-available.html and https://blogs.vmware.com/teamfusion/2021/10/fusion-12-2-now-available.html

If next years major release follows the normal time line then we're at least 7 months away from a new major release.

--
Wil

[bluefirestorm · Accepted solution]

Ditto with the same disclaimers as wila.

On top of that, there was another post where mikero mentions they like to keep Fusion / Workstation in step/sync so maybe the timing for Workstation 17 this time around might be tied to Fusion for Apple ARM chips.

[mw73 · Accepted solution]

I'm more curious what's going to be in version 17. Direct access to video cards via IOMMU from a virtual machine would be very nice.

[whorsfall]

Hi wila,

Excellent information. Thanks for a great answer.

Ward

[mkubecek]

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@mw73 wrote:

I'm more curious what's going to be in version 17. Direct access to video cards via IOMMU from a virtual machine would be very nice.

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That would be nice but I don't think it's likely. Personally (like others, I am not and never were affiliated with VMware) I think VMware does not want to introduce this kind of features in their "desktop" products so that they do not jeopardize sells of their "enterprise" products. I would appreciate SR-IOV support for network cards but I'm afraid it's the same story.

Sorry for being blunt but based on previous experience, I rather expect some more "bells and whistles" in UI from a new version than serious technical improvements. And, of course, another upgrade fee, which seems to be the main point. Of course, I would be happy to be wrong.

[mw73]

Unfortunately, I agree. 😞