INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Broadcom has been sending cease-and-desist letters to owners of VMware perpetual licenses with expired support contracts, Ars Technica has
confirmed.Following its November 2023 acquisition of VMware, Broadcom ended VMware perpetual license sales
Users with perpetual licenses can still use the software they bought, but they are unable to renew support services unless they had a
pre-existing contract enabling them to do so
The controversial move aims to push VMware users to buy subscriptions to VMware products bundled such that associated costs have increased
by 300 percent or, in some cases, more.Some customers have opted to continue using VMware unsupported, often as they research alternatives,
such as VMware rivals or devirtualization.Over the past weeks, some users running VMware unsupported have reported receiving
cease-and-desist letters from Broadcom informing them that their contract with VMware and, thus, their right to receive support services,
The letter [PDF], reviewed by Ars Technica and signed by Broadcom managing director Michael Brown, tells users that they are to stop using
any maintenance releases/updates, minor releases, major releases/upgrades extensions, enhancements, patches, bug fixes, or security patches,
save for zero-day security patches, issued since their support contract ended.The letter tells users that the implementation of any such
Canada, have received this letter, despite not receiving VMware updates since their support contracts expired, CTO Dean Colpitts told Ars
One customer, he said, received a letter six days after their support contract expired.Similarly, users online have reported receiving
cease-and-desist letters even though they haven't issued updates since losing VMware support
