While I respect the angst the author feels, this snippet ... "... allowing an entity like VMware to join, despite their many years long disrespect for the most basic principles of the FOSS Community (such as: Following the GPL and its copyleft principle), really is hard to understand and accept."

I think this presumes a different rationale on the part of the Linux foundation. The answer to the question "Here is some money, can I join?" is always yes. And with enough money it is "heck yes!"

And that leads to "I guess I was being overly naive :("

Which is yes, you were.

Why do politicians, managers, and ex-lovers all have to just "put their differences aside and move on." ? Because if you don't you can't make any progress even if the penultimate step here was one that hurt you badly.

The best way to score this is that VMWare is going to participate in a forum with others who can help guide them to a better compliance record. Both to understand why compliance is good, and to alleviate fears that VMWare might have that complying would leave them vulnerable. What they were before is in the past, now you have a way to work with them to move forward. Consider the alternative that they don't join, they continue to be huge FOSS scofflaws and continue to provide some sort of 'you don't really have to comply' example to others who might be uncomfortable with the GPL. When you look at it this way, it really is a good thing.