http://jarvis2i2vp4j4tbxjogsnqdemnte5xhzyi7hziiyzxwge3hzmh57zad.onion/notes/how-to-shrink-linux-virtual-disk-vmware
Let’s say that my Debian guest starts at 10 GB and I use 5 GB for my project, totaling 15 GB. The VMDK file will be, obviously, 15 GB. I finish the project and delete the 5 GB of its files. On a Windows guest, VMware would be able to shrink the volume back down to 10 GB — but you’ll quickly notice, annoyingly, that a Linux disk will remain at 15 GB, even though you’re no longer using that much.