Omnissa Horizon


Omnissa Horizon is a commercial desktop and app virtualization product originally developed by VMware, Inc for Microsoft Windows, Linux and macOS operating systems.
It was first sold under the name VMware Virtual Desktop Manager , 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 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.

Features

Omnissa 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.

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.

Versions

Horizon

Version release history:
  • VMware View 3.1.3
  • VMware View 4
  • VMware View 5.1
  • VMware View 5.1.1
  • VMware View 5.1.2
  • VMware View 5.1.3
  • VMware View 5.2
  • VMware View 5.3
  • VMware View 5.3.1
  • VMware View 5.3.2
  • VMware View 5.3.3
  • VMware View 5.3.4
  • VMware View 5.3.5
  • VMware View 5.3.6
VMware Horizon 6.0
  • VMware Horizon 6.0.1
  • VMware Horizon 6.0.2
  • VMware Horizon 6.1
  • VMware Horizon 6.1.1
  • VMware Horizon 6.2
  • VMware Horizon 6.2.1
  • VMware Horizon 6.2.2
  • VMware Horizon 6.2.3
VMware Horizon 7.0
  • VMware Horizon 7.0.1
  • VMware Horizon 7.0.2
  • VMware Horizon 7.0.3
  • VMware Horizon 7.1
  • VMware Horizon 7.2
  • VMware Horizon 7.3.2
  • VMware Horizon 7.4
  • VMware Horizon 7.5 This is the first Extended Service Branch. ESBs will receive three planned periodic Service Updates – 6 months, 9 months and 15 months after the base version release.
  • VMware Horizon 7.5.1
  • VMware Horizon 7.6
  • VMware Horizon 7.7
  • VMware Horizon 7.8
  • VMware Horizon 7.9
  • VMware Horizon 7.10 This is an ESB release.
  • VMware Horizon 7.11 VMware announces that Horizon Administrator will be deprecated in early 2020. VMware recommends using Horizon Console.
  • VMware Horizon 7.12
  • VMware Horizon 7.13 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
VMware Horizon 8.0
VMware Horizon 8

Horizon Client

The Client software is known as Client Agent Release Train. CART it is on a separate release cycle than VMware View/Horizon but often coincides with it.
Horizon Clients
  • CART 5.0
  • CART 5.1
  • CART 5.2
  • CART 5.3
  • CART 5.4
  • CART 5.5
Horizon Clients - Naming convention changed to denote the year and month of build release
  • CART 2006
  • CART 2009
  • CART 2012
  • CART 2103
  • CART 2106
  • CART 2111
  • CART 2203
  • CART 2206
  • CART 2209
  • CART 2212
  • CART 2303
  • CART 2306
  • CART 2309
  • CART 2312