Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, Software
VMWare Fusion beta round up
Virtualization on the Mac is heating up, and Parallels isn't the only company with some stakes in the game. VMWare, the Juggernaut of the virtualization world, has been running a private beta of their Mac client, Fusion, for awhile now. They point to a few bloggers' thoughts on the product in a recent post to the company's blog. Some people aren't too thrilled with the simplifed 'wizard' setup that Fusion exposes to the user. They want to be able to tweak more settings, though I imagine the typical OS X user will just want to get Windows (or another OS) running as soon as possible.
It seems to be quick, versatile, and fairly solid in beta. I'm hoping to get my hands on the client myself and put it through its paces, but there is no denying that this is an exciting time to be a Mac user.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
anton said 9:04PM on 12-02-2006
Can it boot the boot camp partition? Parallels can.
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Ingo said 9:40PM on 12-02-2006
Now that Parallels came up with those amazing features in their latest release VMWare really needs to come up with something cool.
I did a test run with it and I wasn't even able to install the VMWare tools because you couldn't navigate to the CD drive.
Now that Parallels can use Boot Camp partitions, has drag'n'drop, too, and this frickin' awesome coherence mode, and Apple+ACVX key mapping I'll propably stay with it... The only thing missing is USB2.0 and 3D graphics acceleration support.
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James Byers said 10:12PM on 12-02-2006
Here's what I want to know:
What will VMWare Fusion cost?
Parallels is lovely, but if Fusion is free (like all the other VMWare consumer products), game over.
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Noshtzy said 11:30PM on 12-02-2006
Not to step on your trailing line Scott, but if using Windows on a Mac is what gets Mac users excited, then maybe I'm not drinking the same kool aid you are.
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Mark D. said 3:17AM on 12-03-2006
Noshtzy:
I think he meant that it's exciting in the 'mac can do it all' way, or maybe the 'not only do I not need a dedicated windows machine/partition, but I have options' way.
As one of those users that switched with the intel platform, I find this exciting for the above reasons. Not to mention that you assume he meant running just windows on a mac, not running ANY operating system on a mac through virtualization. That's the real beauty of this, being able to do it all (and, sometimes, it's the fun of just messing with another OS; like trying out OpenStep to see OS X's legacy or checking out the latest Mandriva release.)
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MBX said 4:39PM on 12-03-2006
does anyone know if this new fusion beta can boot from a existing bootcamp partition/ installation?
otherwise i'm not interested. unless it really runs significantly faster than parallels.
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iDarbert said 5:12PM on 12-03-2006
How come they say it runs fast? I tried the first beta and it was horribly slow, probably due to the debug instructions the app itself warns me about.
I found it incredibly slower compared to Parallels... but considering it's a beta I didn't mind about it - but hearing it's fast makes me wonder.
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