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 and is now referred to as "VMware Horizon" to represent desktop and app virtualization.

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: Although VMware licenses vSphere hypervisor 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 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. 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 protocols.

VMware 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 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. 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 Horizon Clients - Naming convention changed to denote the year and month of build release

Versions

VMware View/Horizon

Version release history: VMware View 3.1.3 (May 5, 2009) VMware View 4 (November 9, 2009) VMware Horizon 6.0 (June 19, 2014) VMware Horizon 7.0 (March 22, 2016) VMware Horizon 8.0 (Announced Aug 6, 2020)