> VMWare has not been selling many Workstation licenses to personal users (costing ~$300 each) and making the products free gives free advertising
Not really. The VMWare Workstation Player had the same engine (but less management functionality) so personal user could actually use a VMWare virtualization product. For basic usage (including snapshotting), which fits a non-commercial user, it was a fitting choice.
Therefore, it's good that they're essentially giving more functionality for free, but they did have a free offer before (for non-commercial users).
Not really. The VMWare Workstation Player had the same engine (but less management functionality) so personal user could actually use a VMWare virtualization product. For basic usage (including snapshotting), which fits a non-commercial user, it was a fitting choice.
Therefore, it's good that they're essentially giving more functionality for free, but they did have a free offer before (for non-commercial users).