Anyone that listened to the IT Reality US podcast with myself Vince Wood, and The Legend Richard Kenyon knows how much Apple irks me. Be aware this comes from someone writing this on an IPAD Pro with its Magic Keyboard, while looking at his IPhone for notifications and also wearing his Apple Watch Ultra 3 (I need help). But the anger and rage I dispel on that podcast has never been out of hate or disdain to the company, but far from it. I grew up admiring Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. I remember seeing a promo for some Silicon Valley Piracy and thinking, “Nerds are so cool”. I still to this day hold to the view that Apple is a shadow of what they once were. The products they release still have a “beauty” to them that’s difficult to put in words (cuz I can’t), and the combination of hardware, plus Software makes their products so well defined and capable that I just adore them. However, they don’t release anything “new”. Almost everything new is just a feature someone else did, but they found their own “version”, and when they do release something new it’s not even at the stage Steve would have released it. I’m not saying Steve Jobs was perfect, but he was arrogant, stringent, and a bully. He wanted things his way, and was so narcissistic that it had to be “perfect”.

But that’s all why I got into Apple products. Why I remain with them is because it’s so damn hard to move from them to something else. Everytime I do I find myself, coming back to Apple. I swapped My IPhone to Android, Microsoft, Google, and back to apple. My watch went from ultra, to whoop, to Garmin, and back to apple. Somehow it turns out cheaper for me to just stick with apple. So in that sense, my anger and rage at apple is just because they could do so much more, and better, if they just thought “Do people really need 10% more performance with a battery that lasts 4 hours on a watch?”

It’s easy for me to draw this discussion to VMware. My career was built in VMware, and now as a Cloud guy focusing in AWS/Azure/GCP/Oracle I find myself all over the place with nothing else to think of outside of that area. However, VMware always brings me back. The community, the tech, it just feels like a warm blanket that makes me smile and feel cozy, and happy. It’s weird, I get it, but the feeling is truly there.

The last two and a half years for VMware (Probably longer because I would say it started when Pat left) Have been rough for VMware. Broadcom acquisition has sent customer spiraling into fits of confusion, anger, investigating competitors and sometimes pure rage. I’ve seen it firsthand, as I’m sure many of my readers have felt, and seen. The VMware by Broadcom has become my apple. I find myself continually saying, “WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? JUST STOP, AND WHY, AND MAYBE DONT?”

The VMware by Broadcom as a company should be coming out of a phase change. With their new release of VCF 9 they have the attention of customers again. Perhaps the next release, whenever that is, will pour more fuel on the fire to get people interested. Because now customers are interested again, but they are interested in the same way I watch ever Apple release with baited breathe only to rage afterwards. No one wants new widgets, they want a company that solves problems customers have, and have continued having. They want to see something that helps them change their life for the better.

This week at Explore, I’m going to voice my opinion and thoughts on what I see starting with this weekend, and going over a daily review. Hope you will join me, because we all know we hope to see a glimpse of the VMware we knew. Just like I still want to see the Apple I grew up with.