As of today VMware View 3.0 is released and available for download. We had the privilege of beta testing the new VMware VDI solution formerly known as VDM and now it is publicly available. The evolution of VDM, VMware View is a great product with a lot of very handy and cool features. I personally like the linked clones and offline desktop feature.

VMware View 3 is available in two editions, Premier and Enterprise. The Enterprise version costs 150 USD and when you spend 100 USD more you get the Premier version which includes VMware Composer, Offline Desktop and VMware ThinApp.

What’s New in View Manager 3.0

View Manager 3.0 includes the following improvements and new features:

View Composer — Dramatically reduces the amount of storage consumed. Images can be provisioned in a few seconds in a fully automated manner by the VMware View Manager for rapid rollouts or as an immediate response to everyday support issues.

Unified Access — View Manager now brokers connections to physical PCs, terminal servers, and blade PCs in addition to virtual desktops hosted on VI3.

Virtual Printing — Provides end users the ability to print to any local or network printer. Virtual Printing includes a universal print driver, compression for print jobs, and auto detection of local printers from the View Client.

Enhanced User Experience — Extends MMR (multi-media redirection) to all Win XP and Win XPe based clients. Provides increased support for critical codecs- MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4 part2, WMV 7/8/9, WMA, AC3, MP3. Provides granular policies for USB redirection.

Offline Desktop (Experimental) — Provides the flexibility to intelligently and securely move virtual desktops between the datacenter and local resources. Users can check out their virtual desktops onto physical clients, use the virtual desktop locally, and then check it back in.