VMWare X.Org Driver Updated To v13.1

It's been a while since VMware last put down an updated xf86-video-vmware DDX driver update for use with their virtualization software. That changed, however, with today marking the release of xf86-video-vmware 13.1.0.

While VMware employs many upstream Mesa/Gallium3D driver developers since their acquisition of Tungsten Graphics many years ago, there hasn't been too much recent innovation specifically within the VMware virtualization graphics stack, but then again it's already in a great shape. The open-source graphics stack exposed to VMware users on Linux is better than what's available with the open-source virtualization alternatives (just the still-experimental Virgil3D and PCI-E device pass-through) and is arguably better than the support provided by VirtualBox. In my use for years of VMware Fusion, the VMware graphics stack has been much better than any other option.

Anyhow, released today is xf86-video-vmware v13.1.0, but it's not the most exciting update. The 13.1 VMware driver update has a number of bug-fixes along with support for the latest X.Org Server releases -- including X.Org Server 1.17 while maintaining support with older xorg-server series. In total there's 28 changes for this new X.Org driver update.

More details on the fixes via the release announcement.