VMware Workstation Pro 16.x from 15.5.x worth it for Linux host?

[kamiller42]

The upgrade is currently on sale. Is the upgrade worth it?

The host is Ubuntu 20.04 based on an Intel i7-7700HQ hosting Windows XP, 7, 10 VMs.

[wila]

Hi,

Always a difficult question to answer as it depends on use cases.

A few possible reasons:
- With Workstation 16.x you can run on later Linux kernels without having to manually patch the kernel modules to get things running again every time there's a kernel update.
- The last major Workstation 16.x update (16.2.0) has introduced Vulkan renderer support. There's still some people bumping into issues, but I expect that to get better over time.

For the rest it is mostly the same as Workstation 16 on Windows I guess.

--
Wil

[kamiller42]

Thanks for your opinion. I went ahead & purchased it. I was a little concerned after reading "My VM is destroyed" posts.

I've been patching my 15 with kernel updates. 16 still needs a rebuild when the kernel updates, but it's little easier than downloading & applying a patching. I'm surprised the app didn't prompt to rebuild because of kernel change. I had to issue

sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

It worked, so not that big of a deal. And maybe 16 comes with some performance perks. I'll see how this goes. Good so far.

[wila]

Hi,

Glad to hear you like it so far.

Re. the "VM destroyed" post, there's always someone with a problem. People don't normally write a post here to say how much they like the new version 😄

FWIW VM's don't just get destroyed unless you take action for that. A possibility would be.. trying out an experimental feature without making a backup first.

--
Wil