VMware Horizon

VMware Horizon (formerly called Horizon View) is a commercial desktop and app virtualization product developed by VMware, Inc for Microsoft Windows, Linux and macOS Operating Systems. It was first sold under the name VMware VDM, but with the release of version 3.0.0 in 2008 it was changed to "VMware View". The name was updated to "Horizon View" with the launch of version 6 in April 2014[2][3] and is now referred to as "VMware Horizon" to represent desktop and app virtualization.

VMware Horizon
Original author(s)VMware
Developer(s)VMware
Stable release
7.12 / March 17, 2020 (2020-03-17)[1]
Operating systemWindows, Linux, macOS
Available inEnglish, German, French, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Spanish
TypeDesktop virtualization
LicenseCommercial, Proprietary
Websitevmware.com/products/horizon/

Features

VMware Horizon provides virtual desktop and app capabilities to users utilizing VMware's virtualization technology. A desktop operating system - typically Microsoft Windows - runs within a virtual machine on a hypervisor. VMware Horizon product has a number of components which are required to provide the virtual desktops, including:

  • VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi with a vSphere license)
  • VMware vCenter Server (management of virtualization environment)
  • View Composer (advanced View management, with automation and cloning)
  • View Manager (administration of the View Environment)
  • View Client (communication between View and the desktop OS)
  • VMware ThinApp (application virtualization)
  • View Persona Management (user profile management)
  • vShield Endpoint (offloaded desktop antivirus)

Although VMware licenses vSphere hypervisor per physical CPU-socket,[4] it licenses VMware View per concurrent desktop.[5] The bundled hypervisor, vSphere for Desktops, is functionally equivalent to vSphere Enterprise Plus.[6]

VMware View has two licensing options, Enterprise and Premier. Enterprise comes with vSphere for Desktops, vCenter Server, and View Manager, and has an MSRP of $150 per concurrent desktop. View Composer, Persona Management, vShield Endpoint, and ThinApp are included in the Premier edition at an MSRP of $250 per concurrent desktop.[7]

In order to transport the desktop resources to users, keyboard, video, mouse and other interactions travel over a network connection. VMware View supports the VMware Blast Extreme, Microsoft RDP, and the Teradici PCoIP[8] protocols.

VMware Horizon Client

VMware Horizon View Client
Original author(s)VMware
Developer(s)VMware
Stable release
5.0 (Series)/ 5.3 / December 12, 2019 (2019-12-12)
Operating systemWindows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS
Available inEnglish, German, French, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Spanish
TypeDesktop virtualization, Thin client
LicenseCommercial, Proprietary with Opensource bits[9]
Website

Users establish client connections to VMware View sessions by running the VMware View Client, through a web browser using HTML5[10], or using a thin client that supports the protocols in use. The VMware View client supports Windows, macOS, Android, and Linux, while ChromeOS is able to connect through the web browser.

Ubuntu 12.10 can login to VMware View desktops directly from the login screen.[11]

The Client software is known as Client Agent Release Train (CART). CART it is on a separate release cycle than VMware View/Horizon but often coincides with it.

CART 5.0 was released on Mar 18, 2019

CART 5.1 was released on Jul 02, 2019

CART 5.2 was released on Sep 17, 2019

CART 5.3 was released on Dec 12, 2019

Versions

VMware View/Horizon

Version release history:

VMware View 3.1.3 (May 5, 2009)

VMware View 4 (November 9, 2009)

  • VMware View 5.1 (May 16, 2012)
  • VMware View 5.1.1 (August 16, 2012)
  • VMware View 5.1.2 (December 13, 2012)
  • VMware View 5.1.3 (March 14, 2013)
  • VMware View 5.2 (October 4, 2012)
  • VMware View 5.3 (November 21, 2013)
  • VMware View 5.3.1 (March 11, 2014)
  • VMware View 5.3.2 (June 24, 2014)
  • VMware View 5.3.3 (November 25, 2014)
  • VMware View 5.3.4 (March 17, 2015)
  • VMware View 5.3.5 (September 10, 2015)
  • VMware View 5.3.6 (March 1, 2016)

VMware Horizon 6.0 (June 19, 2014)

  • VMware Horizon 6.0.1 (September 9, 2014)
  • VMware Horizon 6.0.2 (December 9, 2014)
  • VMware Horizon 6.1 (March 12, 2015)
  • VMware Horizon 6.1.1 (June 4, 2015)
  • VMware Horizon 6.2 (September 3, 2015)
  • VMware Horizon 6.2.1 (December 8, 2015)
  • VMware Horizon 6.2.2 (February 4, 2016)
  • VMware Horizon 6.2.3 (July 21, 2016)

VMware Horizon 7.0 (March 22, 2016)

  • VMware Horizon 7.0.1 (June 16, 2016)
  • VMware Horizon 7.0.2 (September 15, 2016)
  • VMware Horizon 7.0.3 (December 8, 2016)
  • VMware Horizon 7.1 (March 16, 2017)
  • VMware Horizon 7.2 (Jun 20, 2017)
  • VMware Horizon 7.3.2 (November 20, 2017)
  • VMware Horizon 7.4 (Jan 04, 2018)
  • VMware Horizon 7.5 (May 29, 2018) This is the first Extended Service Branch (ESB). ESBs will receive three planned periodic Service Updates (SPs) – 6 months, 9 months and 15 months after the base version release.
  • VMware Horizon 7.5.1 (July 19, 2018)
  • VMware Horizon 7.6 (Sep 6, 2018)
  • VMware Horizon 7.7 (Dec 13, 2018)
  • VMware Horizon 7.8 (March 14, 2019)
  • VMware Horizon 7.9 (Jul 02, 2019)
  • VMware Horizon 7.10 (Sep 17, 2019) This is an ESB.
  • VMware Horizon 7.11 (Dec 12, 2019) VMware announces that Horizon Administrator (FLASH based) will be deprecated in early 2020. VMware recommends using Horizon Console (HTML5 based).
  • VMware Horizon 7.12 (March 17, 2020)

References

Further reading

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