Too lazy to foruming these days so just post AI summary why I hate VMware post-Broadcom and Broadcom in general.

The general complaints about Broadcom's acquisition of Symantec's Enterprise Security Business (and CA Technologies) before VMware largely follow a consistent pattern focused on aggressive cost-cutting and a shift in business strategy that disadvantaged smaller customers and partners.
The major complaints centered on three core areas:
💰 Pricing and Licensing
The most significant and consistent complaint across all of Broadcom's software acquisitions, including Symantec, was the immediate and dramatic change to pricing and licensing models.
* Drastic Price Increases: Customers reported massive price hikes, with anecdotal reports ranging from 82% up to several hundred percent for renewals and new contracts.
* Forced Bundling: Customers were often forced to buy products in large bundles (SKUs) that included software they did not want or need (sometimes called "shelfware") to retain access to the core, essential products.
* End of Perpetual Licenses: Broadcom shifted the models from the acquired companies' traditional perpetual licenses to more expensive, mandatory subscription-based models.
🎯 Customer and Partner Focus
A key part of the Broadcom playbook is to rationalize the customer base, which created significant disruption for many legacy users.
* Focus on Global 2000: Broadcom explicitly stated a strategy to focus only on the largest enterprises (the Global 2000 accounts), which make up a core, "sticky" customer base.
* Alienation of Mid-Market/SMBs: This shift left the commercial, mid-market, and smaller customers feeling abandoned, with reports of their accounts no longer being valued, their dedicated sales reps being eliminated, and being told their accounts would essentially be allowed to "churn out" of the business.
* Channel Disruption: The number of channel partners and resellers was drastically reduced, and many larger accounts were moved to direct sales, damaging the relationship ecosystem that customers relied on for support and integration.
📉 Innovation and Support
The aggressive cost-cutting that followed the acquisitions led directly to a decline in service quality and product momentum.
* Diminished Support: Customers reported a significant drop in customer service and technical support quality, with less responsive service and the elimination of knowledgeable support staff following layoffs. For some Symantec customers, support experience went "from bad to worse."
* Reduced R&D Investment: Broadcom implemented deep cuts in Research and Development (R&D) spending (e.g., a reported 40% cut at the Symantec Enterprise Security business). This led to concerns about stalled development, slower innovation, and the eventual end-of-life for non-core products that customers depended on.
* Layoffs and Brain Drain: Massive post-acquisition layoffs led to the departure of institutional knowledge and technical talent (referred to as "brain drain"), further impacting the quality of support and future product development.