O'Grady's PowerPage

Tag: Personal

  • Broadcom makes VMware Fusion 13, VMware Workstation Pro available for free for personal use

    Broadcom makes VMware Fusion 13, VMware Workstation Pro available for free for personal use

    If you’re hankering for full virtualization goodness on your Apple Silicon Mac, VMware has you covered for free.

    VMware, which was acquired by Broadcom in November 2023, has announced that both its Fusion Pro and Workstation Pro products are now available for free. The applications allow Mac users to operate virtual machines to run non-macOS operating systems like Windows 11.

    In a blog post announcing the change, Broadcom said the move was part of a plan to simplify how the company brings VMware apps to market:

    “Fusion Pro and Workstation Pro will now have two license models. We now provide a Free Personal Use or a Paid Commercial Use subscription for our Pro apps. Users will decide based on their use case whether a commercial subscription is required.”

    In order to acquire the software, users can simply register a user id and download the application from support.broadcom.com.

    Broadcom also said it had discontinued Workstation Player and Fusion Player, although existing customers can upgrade to the more feature-packed Pro version at no extra cost. Meanwhile, VMware Player will remain bundled with Workstation Pro.

    Broadcom also stated that customers using Fusion and Workstation at or for work are still required to pay for a commercial subscription, which can be purchased through an authorized Broadcom Advantage partner.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via MacRumors, VMware, and support.broadcom.com

  • VMware Fusion 13 Player, Fusion 13 Pro now available, offers native support for both Intel and Apple Silicon-based Macs

    VMware Fusion 13 Player, Fusion 13 Pro now available, offers native support for both Intel and Apple Silicon-based Macs

    If you’re looking to run Windows on an Apple Silicon-based Mac, you’re going to like this.

    VMware on Friday, announced the launch of Fusion 13, the latest major update to the Fusion virtualization software. The software is designed to allow Mac users to operate virtual machines to run non-macOS operating systems like Windows 11.

    Both Fusion 13 Pro and Fusion 13 Player are compatible with both Intel-based Macs and Apple Silicon Macs equipped with M-series chips, offering native support. VMware has been testing Apple silicon support for several months now ahead of the launch of the latest version of Fusion.

    Fusion 13 allows Intel-based and Apple Silicons Macs to access Windows 11 virtual machines. Intel Macs offer full support for Windows 11, while on Apple Silicon, VMware says there is a first round of features for Windows 11 on Arm.

    Users who need to run traditional win32 and x64 apps can do so through built-in emulation.

    Fusion 13 also features a TPM 2.0 virtual device that can be added to any virtual machine, thereby storing contents in an encrypted section of the virtual machine files and offering hardware-tpm functionality parity. This is enabled via a fast encryption type that encrypts only the parts of the VM necessary to support the TPM device for performance and security.

    The software supports OpenGL 4.3 in Windows and Linux VMs on Intel and in Linux VMs on Apple silicon.

    Fusion 13 Player is free for personal use, and commercial licenses for both versions are available at a 30 percent discount to celebrate the launch. VMware Fusion 13 Player is priced at $104.30, and VMware Fusion Pro is priced at $139.30. Upgrades from prior versions are also available at a lower cost.

    If you’ve had a chance to try Fusion 13, please let us know about your experience in the comments.

    Via MacRumors and VMware

  • LinkedIn data leak leads to hacker group selling data of over 700 million users

    LinkedIn data leak leads to hacker group selling data of over 700 million users

    If you weren’t enamored with LinkedIn before, you’re not going to love this.

    A group of hackers are currently selling the personal information over more than 700 million LinkedIn users.

    Here are the data types that were leaked:

    Email Addresses; Full names; Phone numbers; Physical addresses; Geolocation records; LinkedIn username and profile URL; Personal and professional experience/background; Genders; Other social media accounts and usernames

    On June 22nd, a user of a popular hacker forum advertised data from 700 Million LinkedIn users for sale. The user of the forum posted a sample of the data that includes 1 million LinkedIn users.

    LinkedIn has offered the following official statement regarding the data scrape effort, which it does not label as a data breach:

    Our teams have investigated a set of alleged LinkedIn data that has been posted for sale. We want to be clear that this is not a data breach and no private LinkedIn member data was exposed. Our initial investigation has found that this data was scraped from LinkedIn and other various websites and includes the same data reported earlier this year in our April 2021 scraping update.

    Members trust LinkedIn with their data, and any misuse of our members’ data, such as scraping, violates LinkedIn terms of service. When anyone tries to take member data and use it for purposes LinkedIn and our members haven’t agreed to, we work to stop them and hold them accountable.

    For additional information about our policies and how we protect member data from misuse: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/56347/prohibited-software-and-extensions

    It’s hard to know what to do in the wake of this, as the damage has pretty much already been done. Be careful online and stay safe out there.

    Via The Mac Observer and Restore Privacy

  • VMWare announces Fusion 12, highlights macOS Big Sur support, upcoming features, and free pricing for personal tier

    This could definitely come in handy.

    VMWare on Thursday announced Fusion 12, the next step to its virtualization software. The new version will offer support for macOS Big Sur as well as other changes.

    VMWare had originally announced a “tech preview” of Fusion 12, and suggested that future versions of its app would be compatible with ARM-based chips.

    While Fusion 12 hasn’t added support for Apple Silicon processors, the update phases out VMWare’s use of kernel extensions by using new Apple APIs to support its containers and virtual machines. VMWare Fusion 12 will continue to use extensions on macOS Catalina, but will use the hypervisor and other APIs on macOS Big Sur — allowing support for the operating support as both guest and host machines. Apple is also currently in the midst of phasing out kernel extensions.

    Fusion 12 also introduces compatibility with eGPUs, support for DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.1, and support for Kubernetes containers. The new version will also introduce improvements in sandbox security and accessibility controls, among other changes.

    Finally, VMWare has announced that it will make its base tier version of Fusion 12 free for personal use. A commercial license retails for $139, or

    $89 as an upgrade from Fusion 10 or 11. Fusion 12 Pro will be priced at $199 for a new license, or $99 as an upgrade.

    VMWare hasn’t announced a firm release date for Fusion 12, but said that the update will debut later in 2020.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via AppleInsider and VMWare