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 provides virtual desktop and app capabilities to users utilizing VMware's virtualization technology. A desktop operating system - typically MicrosoftWindows - 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 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.[5]
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 TeradiciPCoIP[7] protocols.
Users establish client connections to VMware View sessions by running the VMware View Client, through a web browser using HTML5,[9] 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.[10]
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
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).
