Quite a few people already bumped into this the last two days (will add those links later), so today’s confirmation by Broadcom – who have a similar modus operandi as companies like Computer Associates and Symantec were and Idera is now – as of the ESXi death does not come as a surprise.
- [Wayback/Archive] End Of General Availability of the free vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi 7.x and 8.x) (2107518)
Symptoms
VMware vSphere Hypervisor (free edition) is no longer available on the VMware website
Resolution
Along with the termination of perpetual licensing, Broadcom has also decided to discontinue the Free ESXi Hypervisor, marking it as EOGA (End of General Availability).
Regrettably, there is currently no substitute product offered. For further details regarding the affected products and this change, we encourage you to review the following blog post: https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2024/01/22/vmware-end-of-availability-of-perpetual-licensing-and-saas-services/
[Wayback/Archive] VMware End Of Availability of Perpetual Licensing and SaaS Services – VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Blog
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 