By Pat Lee, Senior Director of Product Management, End-User Computing, VMware
I am pleased to announce the general availability of VMware Horizon 6 for Linux.
The release of VMware Horizon 6 for Linux builds on the success of our Early Access program where over 400 customers were able to test and validate the benefits of Linux desktop virtualization in their environment.
Why Linux Virtual Desktops?
VMware Horizon 6 for Linux opens up a whole new world of possibilities for VDI including higher education engineering classes, offshore development, high-end 3D workstations, and customers looking to replace Windows desktops outright. The solution enables customers to reduce capital and operational expenditures by as much as 60 percent by moving to thin clients from expensive laptops or workstations and by moving away from Microsoft licensing.
Bringing VDI to Linux desktops helps increase data security and prevent intellectual property leaks, which is particularly important for organizations that run offshore development centers. VMware Horizon 6 for Linux supports the most popular desktop Linux distributions: Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS.
Virtualizing Linux 3D Workstations with NVIDIA GRID
More than just basic virtual desktops, VMware Horizon 6 for Linux delivers virtual, high-end Linux engineering workstations thanks to our continued collaboration with NVIDIA.
VMware Horizon 6 for Linux includes support for vDGA direct pass-through 3D graphics using NVIDIA GRID K1 and K2 graphics cards. This enables organizations to leverage high-performance 3D graphics with up to four 2560×1600 displays to deliver a rich high-end Linux workstation from the datacenter.
The benefits of moving Linux workstations into the datacenter include improving collaboration with large datasets, increasing data security to help prevent intellectual property leaks and reducing the cost and complexity related to acquiring and maintaining high-performance workstations.
How Do I Acquire VMware Horizon 6 for Linux?
VMware Horizon 6 for Linux is available as part of VMware Horizon Enterprise and VMware Workspace Suite for customers who want to run Linux desktops as well as Windows desktops and applications. If you already own VMware Horizon Enterprise or Workspace Suite, you can download VMware Horizon for Linux and the latest VMware Horizon clients today.
If you only want to run Linux desktops, VMware Horizon for Linux is also available as a standalone product. Visit our product page for more information.
Expanding Our Horizon with Linux
We are very excited about the possibilities that VMware Horizon 6 for Linux brings to our customers and we look forward to hearing how you plan on putting it to use in your environment. Let me know how you use and support Linux desktops in your organization today or how you plan on using it in the future, in the comment section below.
