It’s not a reversal, it’s a minor adjustment to keep companies from leaving, so they can jack the prices again next year.

They see the writing - Enterprises are adjusting by moving to solutions like Proxmox (or vendors who provide the full package support), which will drive a need for the Linux KVM skillset. This will in turn expand that skillset, enabling more SMBs to run KVM.

Note that KVM is more performant than VMware, and that VMware has already switched VMware Workstation to KVM. Yep, their own desktop app is no longer their own code, but a shell on KVM.

Die in a fire CEO. VMware was the go-to since about 2006. It will now get supplanted by versions of KVM.