Filed under: Software
VMware Fusion public beta available
After months of waiting, the public beta of VMware Fusion is finally available. What is Fusion? It is VMware's OS X virtualization client. Most of you are probably familiar with Parallels for the Mac, which allows you to run Windows, and other OSes, on your Mac. Fusion is VMware's answer to Parallels. VMware is the market leader in the virtualization space, and so having a VMware app for OS X is a big deal.The beta works with all Intel Macs and allows you to virtualize a number of different operating systems. You can assign multiple processors to your virtual machines, and Fusion supports USB 2.0 out of the box. One of the largest selling points of Fusion, besides VMware's track record, is that you can download and run a number of Virtual Appliances which run the gamut from a complete Oracle 10g environment to a lightweight Knoppix install. As with any betas, there are bugs so make sure to read this page detailing them all.
Read on for some pictures of the beta in action.
Thanks, Jamie.
The window that greets you when you first run Fusion:
Setting up a new Virtual Machine:
The list of operating systems that are supported:
Various flavors of Windows supported:
A virtual appliance starting up:
Memory Settings:
Processor settings:
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ingo said 3:51AM on 12-22-2006
The availability of a large number of appliances - a big selling point for VMware? Who cares? I can turn them into Parallels VMs with Parallels Transport anyway.
I tested Fusion when it was private beta and it sucked because I couldn't even install the VMware tools as the explorer chocked on browsing the virtual CD drive were you need to install the VMware tools from.
They really need to come up with something far better than this...
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mmoroca said 3:57AM on 12-22-2006
Will take apart Parallels? Dont think so... but they did his homework ;-)
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Macintologist said 6:29AM on 12-22-2006
I think what's happening here is that Parellels has been so good to the Mac platform and the Mac community, for coming out so early on right after Boot Camp, helping to impress a Mac user's PC friends, and generally make using a Mac 10x easier for many of us, that the Mac community will zealously defend Parallels like they do the Mac. If Parallels can continue to come out with frequent updates and new features, they will earn the Mac community's business for a LONG time.
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bobics said 7:42AM on 12-22-2006
Re: LONG time
And then Microsoft will buy them out. ;)
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Peter said 7:46AM on 12-22-2006
How long will Parallels survive if VMware simply gives away the basic Fusion version for free? This would match their current business model, where only the high end workstation application is paid for.
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bobics said 7:59AM on 12-22-2006
No "snapshot" feature as in the Windows version. Late to the game and no compelling advantages? No thanks.
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Christian said 8:47AM on 12-22-2006
As many here have said, Fusion seems to be lacking some of the sexy features that have been in the bleeding edge (read: unstable) versions of Parallels. VMware is a huge threat to Parallels, though, because VMware comes to the table with all kinds of experience that Parallels doesn't have. First public beta is rough? So have other initial VMware releases when they've been beta. When they go gold, they're rock solid. There's a reason Fortune 500 companies virtualize their entire server infrastructure with VMware software: it ALWAYS works.
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Jean-Francois Arseneault said 10:10AM on 12-22-2006
I have to side with Christian's comment on this. I work for IBM and we support VMware in a major way and release pre-built images for public consumption. If (when) a VMware Player for Mac comes out and you have access to this huge library (of images), it becomes a compelling story for a business to go with the larger, more established player.
It's also that VMware/EMC provides an upward path, from playing with an image on player/Workstation to making it available on Server/ESX/GSX with little modifications.
Vertical integration is key, in computing as in the retail/distribution world... if you can make it work to your advantage.
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Shawn Morel said 10:10AM on 12-22-2006
Ingo,
Sorting through some of the rougher spots is part of the "fun" of a private beta. That's the reason we make it private ;)
Now that this thing is finally public the VMware people that have been working on this can finally speak. We are a bunch of faithful Mac users and we really want to make this an amazing product that we ourselves will be using everyday. We are listening and reading what you guys are asking for at any chance we get and now that things are public we have also started blogging.
I have a blog. Ben also has a blog already going at
http://infusion.vox.com/
Some of the others are still in the process of getting things set up but things will be syndicated at the following link shortly:
http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/
We have our community forum:
http://www.vmware.com/community/forum.jspa?forumID=371
There's even a "Send Feedback" menu item in the Help menu that sends e-mail right to our inboxes.
Consider this a plug if you will but posting a comment to my favourite Mac news blog was the best way I could think of letting you guys know that we are listening and we will do our darndest to make this an awesome product.
shawn
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Jonathan Williams said 10:57AM on 12-22-2006
Do either VMWare or Parallels offer a windows driver that offers improved 3D performance through some kind of pass-through? This would be a very compelling reason to move to one over the other. Unless Parallels can provide a gaming experience of greater quality than VMWare, we won't be seeing the people with a casual need for to use windows for some things running out and getting it -- they can simply dual boot or go into VMWare.
There will always be customers who need to rely on the less general features in these virtualization products (ah, using ArcView GIS in VirtualPC!), but unless Parallels is massively more compelling for typical end user uses - running games and internet explorer - we're going to see community momentum form around the free "good enough" product.
I'm surprised at how emotional and protective towards Parallels some of the comments are. I work doing web development in an academic setting where I have found it difficult to justify buying Parallels on top of XP, just for testing with Internet Explorer. I personally get some weird zealot-like attachments to software (vi in particular), but I don't see either product like this can inspire this.
Of course, in five years, when Internet Explorer 9.5 Home Edition (exclusive to Vista2) comes out, I'll need to buy a new machine because I'll be locked out of running legal copies in emulation because of odious licensing agreements, so who really cares about the future of a virtualization product anyway? I won't be able to run Direct X 15 games, so most of us will only be using this to test old versions of IE and play retrogames.
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Joshua said 11:41AM on 12-22-2006
I could have told you that VMware was going to be publicly released today. I paid for Parallels yesterday, so it would only make sense that the free alternative would come out today.
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Mike Cohen said 11:47AM on 12-22-2006
I got a kernel panic before I even finished installing Windows XP. I really like the new Parallels beta, but on the other hand I have some VMWare machines from Linux that I'd like to be able to use on my Mac. Also VMWare's Linux support seems better, since Parallels seems more focused in Windows support rather than supporting a wider range of guest OSes.
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William C Bonner said 12:49PM on 12-22-2006
I got the email directly from VMWare announcing the fusion beta. I followed the links in their email but all that I get is a message telling me that I'm not authorized. It's the same message that I get when I try to go look at the vmware forum that Shawn Morel mentioned in message 9.
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Macster said 1:50PM on 12-22-2006
VMWare coming out on OS X is huge for anyone who already uses VMWare, which is a whole lot of Windows and Unix users out there. I personally use it all the time, so this is big news for me, because now I can use all my VMWare virtual machines on OS X without booting into Windows.
I think there are two type of users who use Parallels and VMWare on OS X. One, is a person who just uses it to run one copy of Windows to run the applications they can't on OS X. And the more typical VMWare user, who runs many different Virtual Machines for development, servers, etc.
The first group, which I think a lot of people on this forum are, don't understand why the features of VMWare matter. For them, Parallels is probably better. But for anyone who needs to run more than one Virtual Machine, and is constantly creating new ones, or is an existing VMWare user, VMWare rocks. Note: I haven't tried fusion yet, so I'm basing this on VMWare for Windows and Linux.
I think these two products really are meant for different audiences. When VMWare Workstation comes out for OS X, I'll happily pay my $190, because for what I do with it, it is worth it.
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Gruff said 2:30PM on 12-22-2006
Having had prior experience with VMWare, I can also attest to their solid performance. When I purchased my new mac, there wasn't a VMWare beta (even private), so I went with Parallels and have been quite impressed with their dedication and continued improvement. I believe that there's room in the market for both -- Parallels for the home and small business user, VMWare for prosumer and enterprise.
The primary home Mac user is more interested in using Windows software than Solaris, FreeBSD, or any other OS, so if Parallels focuses their energies toward DirectX 9 accelerated graphics and gaming support, even if that means support for fewer OSs, they would certainly capture the home market.
Because VMWare already has an "in" due to name recognition and reputation in medium and large businesses, if they do their usual bang-up job, those markets will be their's to lose.
-Gruff
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Hiram said 2:55PM on 12-22-2006
Q, the cocoa version of QEMU, works just fine. I am running Haiku (Be) OS on it now. It's fast, reasonably stable, and free. Take a look: http://www.kju-app.org/kju/
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David said 3:46PM on 12-22-2006
As the owner of three PowerPC Macs (and unlikely to upgrade anytime soon), I really wish they'd do a VMware Console for PPC. This isn't the full VM system (which I know can't happen on PPC), but simply the visual interface to a VMware server system that'd run on my dual Xeon linux server in the basement. All it has to do is be the interface -- it really shouldn't be that hard.
I know I could just run VMware console *on* the server and send it to the client over Xwindows, but that's just nowhere near as elegant and would likely preclude hooking any local peripherals to a running VM.
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Samual Icky said 3:46PM on 12-22-2006
So far my biggest issue, still getting ready to install it, is the beta-download page... Come on EVERY field is required... this thing has no smarts to it! I'm a lone home user... so all that business stuff goes out the door... and yea I kinda made up information... so if any one from VMware call "me" they will get the a fax machine for my fav restaurant (hey the menu was next to me)
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Martijn Steink said 2:24PM on 12-23-2006
Late to the game and when downloading the beta you need to fill out all sorts of private details. Identity and e-mail ok, but other than that, no thanks.
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wAkO said 3:55PM on 12-23-2006
Some of you guys are passing judgement on a product that is just simply in BETA and comparing it to a final product with many months of fine tuning.
Of course the thing is unstable, of course it will lack some features right now, of course it isnt comparable to Parallels yet. Its a damn BETA!
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