Installed kernel 3.18 Final, and as expected the latest NVIDIA (346.16) and VMware (11.0) drivers compile and load/run OK.     The older NVIDIA (340.58) and VMware (10.0.4 + vmnet patch) drivers should also be OK..

$ uname -a
Linux rglinux-i7 3.18.0 #4 SMP PREEMPT Sun Dec 7 18:54:19 PST 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

The obscure ‘lockup’ bug is still unfixed, but it appears this only affected a very small number of users, so was not determined to be a reason to hold things up..

More details of the changes from -rc7 here:  http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1412.0/05308.html

Robert Gadsdon.   December 7, 2014.