As the world awaits news of whether Broadcom's acquisition of VMware will close on the target date of October 30 - an outcome thought likely unless China's State Administration for Market Regulation intervenes - the virtualization giant has made a modest change to its practices by shuttering a site used for experimental software - or "Flings" in vSpeak.

It's unclear if the decision to close the Flings site is a decision of New Management at VMware, or just a change of direction.

Flings were unsupported code that VMware offered to brave customers willing to test offerings it thought might be useful, but for various reasons decided not to include in its product development processes at least initially. Some Flings became handy items in vAdmins' toolkits. Others - like the vCenter migration tool - were added to formal product releases.

William Lam, a VMware senior staff solution architect, wrote that his internal inquiries did not yield a reason for the closure of the Flings site. Lam explained that some Flings have found new homes at various nooks and crannies across VMware.com. Others appear to have been removed, with Lam noting that a redditor has archived plenty here.

ESXi on Arm, the cut of VMware's hypervisor for the Arm architecture, has survived and can be found here.

The demise of Flings comes amid reports that some VMware staff have received offers of employment at Broadcom, while others remain uncertain of their futures. The Register understands that late last week VMware cancelled a planned all-hands meeting - a decision that increased anxiety as deadlines for communication about employment prospects have also elapsed without workers receiving any news.

Speculation about those delays - and the reasons has a recent ten percent dip in VMware's share price - also continues, and have prompted suggestions the Broadcom buy may not conclude smoothly, or on time.

China is seen as the likely source of a decision that could impact the deal, but Broadcom CEO Hock Tan has previously shot down such suggestions.

Broadcom's deadline for the deal's closure, October 30, has already commenced in China - without any public statement from local regulators.

Whether the end of Flings is therefore an early sign of how Broadcom will run VMware, or just one of those things, remains uncertain. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2023/10/30/vmware_flings_broadcom_deal_close/