Once upon a time, downloading the free hypervisor was a two-click affair. Then, Broadcom acquired VMware, shook the table, and hid the free ISO in a labyrinth of enterprise paywalls and confusing licensing portals.
By default, ESXi 8 yells at you if you haven't deployed a vCenter server. Since you are free, you don't have one. SSH into your host and run: esxcli system settings advanced set -o /UserVars/SuppressShellWarning -i 1
While downloading, look for a tab labeled or "Release Notes" near the download button. You are looking for a license key that starts with 4F40H ... (that is the standard free key format).
