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Comment by frostmatthew | Hacker News Reader

> VMware seems to have mostly abandoned Workstation.

There were just updates for Workstation[1] and Player[2] less than two months ago.

> The team was fired.

The team was replaced, and not simply to do only maintenance patches: "They’ve got a great surprise lined up for Q3, something very interesting for Q4, and something very big for H1."[3]

[N.B. I work for VMware, though not in End User Computing]

[1] http://pubs.vmware.com/Release_Notes/en/workstation/11/works...

[2] http://pubs.vmware.com/Release_Notes/en/player/7/player-714-...

[3] http://blogs.vmware.com/workstation/2016/07/meet-the-team.ht...

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The team was replaced

That's a weird turn of phrase. Are they still working there or not?

https://blog.chipx86.com/2016/01/26/a-tribute-to-vmware-work...

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/01/vmware...

Can you give any insight on the future of Linux guests on Windows hosts using the free Player version?

I just want to be able to run xubuntu 16.x (and newer when it comes out) in Unity mode without issues but from what I read only 14.x works because none of the guest tooling has been updated.

It's a pity that this use case seems to have put on the back burner. This type of set up is the only way for a lot of people to work without resorting to buying 2 computers or dual booting.

> I just want to be able to run xubuntu 16.x (and newer when it comes out) in Unity mode

Apparently Workstation 12 removed Unity mode for Linux guests because it was rarely used[1] - I'm just speculating (I don't work in End User Computing) but I imagine that was based on Customer Experience Improvement Program (a.k.a. telemetry) data (I know some people prefer to opt-out of participating but the information is useful, we just implemented it in the product I work on and we're looking forward to being able to make better decisions about feature/bug priority based on it).

If you'd like to provide feedback on Unity support for Linux you might want to tweet to the Workstation team @vmw_workstation (and/or perhaps their PM, @mikeroysoft).

[1] https://communities.vmware.com/thread/518735

My question was in reference to the Player version, not Workstation. Does that make a difference in the grand scheme of things?

> Does that make a difference in the grand scheme of things?

Not really (also, post-7 Player has been re-branded "Workstation Player"[1], presumably so the relationship to Workstation is clearer).

[1] https://www.vmware.com/products/player

I mean the free version of Player, not the Pro version.

(Not trolling you either, this conversation is just a side effect of your company's naming conventions haha)

Basically I'm asking if the free Player version is going to get continued to be updated so it supports modern Linux guests?

> I'm asking if the free Player version is going to get continued to be updated so it supports modern Linux guests

Your original question (and my response) seemed to ask specifically about Unity with regards to Linux. As for more general support of new/future Linux versions my assumption would be that will continue (but that's just my guess as a random engineer in a completely unrelated business unit, you may want to reach out to the Workstation team via Twitter/Facebook/forum for an informed and official answer).

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