Omnissa Horizon (formerly called VMware Horizon, VMware Horizon View, VMware View) is a commercial
desktop and app virtualization product originally developed by
VMware, Inc for
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
,
Linux
Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
and
macOS
macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
operating systems.
It was first sold under the name VMware Virtual Desktop Manager (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
and then referred to as "VMware Horizon" to represent desktop and app virtualization.
Broadcom
Broadcom Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational designer, developer, manufacturer, and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data cen ...
completed its acquisition of VMware in November 2023, and then in May 2024 spun out the End-User Computing division, including Horizon, into a standalone entity called
Omnissa pending the sale to
KKR KKR may refer to:
* KKR & Co., a global investment firm
*Kolkata Knight Riders, an Indian Premier League franchise
* Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Plant (), first nuclear power plant in the former East Germany
* Kalkara, Malta, postal code KKR
*Kir-Bala ...
.
Features
Omnissa Horizon provides virtual desktop and app capabilities to users utilizing VMware's virtualization technology. A desktop operating system - typically
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
- runs within a
virtual machine
In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization or emulator, emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide the functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve ...
on a
hypervisor
A hypervisor, also known as a virtual machine monitor (VMM) or virtualizer, is a type of computer software, firmware or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines. A computer on which a hypervisor runs one or more virtual machines is called ...
. VMware Horizon product has a number of components which are required to provide the virtual desktops, including:
*
VMware vSphere
VMware vSphere (formerly VMware Infrastructure 4) is VMware's cloud computing virtualization platform.
It includes vCenter Configuration Manager, as well as vCenter Application Discovery Manager, and the ability of vMotion to move more than o ...
Hypervisor (
ESXi
VMware ESXi (formerly ESX) is an enterprise-class, type-1 hypervisor developed by VMware, a subsidiary of Broadcom, for deploying and serving virtual computers. As a type-1 hypervisor, ESXi is not a software application that is installed on ...
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
A hypervisor, also known as a virtual machine monitor (VMM) or virtualizer, is a type of computer software, firmware or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines. A computer on which a hypervisor runs one or more virtual machines is called ...
per physical CPU-socket, it licenses VMware View per concurrent desktop.
The bundled hypervisor, vSphere for Desktops, is functionally equivalent to vSphere Enterprise Plus.
VMware View has two licensing options, Enterprise and Premier. Enterprise comes with vSphere for Desktops, vCenter Server, and View Manager, and has an
MSRP
The list price, also known as the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), or the recommended retail price (RRP), or the suggested retail price (SRP) of a product is the price at which its manufacturer notionally recommends that a retailer ...
of $150 per concurrent desktop. View Composer, Persona Management, vShield Endpoint, and ThinApp are included in the Premier edition at an
MSRP
The list price, also known as the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), or the recommended retail price (RRP), or the suggested retail price (SRP) of a product is the price at which its manufacturer notionally recommends that a retailer ...
of $250 per concurrent desktop.
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
RDP may refer to:
Computing
* Ramer–Douglas–Peucker algorithm, an algorithm for polygonal simplification
* Recombination detection program, for analysing genetic recombination
* Recursive descent parser, a type of top-down parser
* Remote Desk ...
, and the
Teradici
Teradici Corporation was a privately held software company founded in 2004, which was acquired by HP Inc. in October 2021.
Teradici initially developed a protocol (PCoIP) for compressing and decompressing images and sound when remotely accessing ...
PCoIP
Teradici Corporation was a privately held software company founded in 2004, which was acquired by HP Inc. in October 2021.
Teradici initially developed a protocol ( PCoIP) for compressing and decompressing images and sound when remotely accessin ...
protocols.
Horizon Client
Users establish client connections to VMware View sessions by running the VMware View Client, through a web browser using HTML5, or using a
thin client
In computer networking, a thin client, sometimes called slim client or lean client, is a simple (low-Computer performance, performance) computer that has been Program optimization, optimized for Remote desktop, establishing a remote connectio ...
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.
Versions
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 release.
*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)
*VMware Horizon 7.13 (Oct 15, 2020) This is the last significant release of Horizon 7. The end of general support for Horizon 7 is March 2021.
*VMware Horizon 7.13.1 (May 25, 2021)
VMware Horizon 8.0 (Announced Aug 6, 2020)
VMware Horizon 8
Horizon Client
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.
Horizon Clients
*CART 5.0 (Mar 18, 2019)
*CART 5.1 (Jul 02, 2019)
*CART 5.2 (Sep 17, 2019)
*CART 5.3 (Dec 12, 2019)
*CART 5.4 (March 17, 2020)
*CART 5.5 (Oct 15, 2020)
Horizon Clients - Naming convention changed to denote the year and month of build release
*CART 2006 (Aug 11, 2020)
*CART 2009 (Oct 15, 2020)
*CART 2012 (Jan 07, 2021)
*CART 2103 (Mar 23, 2021)
*CART 2106 (Jul 15, 2021)
*CART 2111 (Nov 29, 2021)
*CART 2203 (Apr 04, 2022)
*CART 2206 (July 19, 2022)
*CART 2209 (Oct 20, 2022)
*CART 2212 (Jan 12, 2022)
*CART 2303 (Mar 31, 2023)
*CART 2306 (July 10, 2023)
*CART 2309 (Oct 26, 2023)
*CART 2312 (Jan 21, 2024)
References
Further reading
* Keith Schultz (December 14, 2011
VDI shoot-out: Citrix XenDesktop vs. VMware View. Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 and VMware View 5 vie for the most flexible, scalable, and complete virtual desktop infrastructure ''
InfoWorld
''InfoWorld'' (''IW'') is an American information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a Web-only publication. Its parent company is International Data Group, and its sister pu ...
''
* Keith Schultz (December 14, 2011
VDI shoot-out: HDX vs. PCoIP. The differences between the Citrix and VMware remote desktop protocols are more than skin deep ''InfoWorld''
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vmware View
Centralized computing
Remote desktop protocols
View