Perhaps the biggest change is that the Free Version of ESXi (vSphere Hypervisor) has been discontinued. You can no longer officially download a free license key from the VMware portal for home lab use.
For businesses, using unlicensed software is a massive liability during audits. Legitimate Ways to Get VMware Licenses
You can still download the full version of ESXi 8 and run it with no limitations for 60 days. This is the best way to test features safely before committing to a purchase or moving to an alternative. 3. Transition to Proxmox or XCP-ng
VMware is currently focusing on refining the vSphere 8 ecosystem. There has been no official release or even a public beta for version 9.
Open-source, based on Debian, and incredibly powerful. XCP-ng: A high-performance, turnkey open-source hypervisor.
Because the free version of ESXi is gone, many "home labbers" are moving away from VMware. If you don't want to pay for a subscription, consider: