VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1

@Ben

I appreciate your comments on here.. screw the rest of them.

lost aero in vista, had to do system restore to get it back, reinstalling video driver package for 7300gt did not work

lost internet connectivity in XP

beautiful UI however

Sorry about that earlier comment. A bit of overzealousness on the part of 1password, which that now been taken care of.

What I wanted to ask (and had written) was somewhat like this:

What I'm really longing for is much like what Brian E asked for up above: Enough 3D support to run compiz fusion in a Linux VM. Full OpenGL support would naturally be a very welcome bonus. I understand that Windows is probably the thing most people want to virtualize, but we are quite a few who use Linux on our Macs as well, and I'd sure try out more of them if I could run compiz or other compositing window manager in my sessions (Like KDE4's window manager).

A followup question: The extra 3D support in Windows, does it give a boost to the framerate/speed of games in Windows or is it only that they can look prettier than before?

/Martin.

The thing that would make sense here is, a Safari plugin *based on* ffmpeg (which is at the base of VLC, MPlayer, etc) to play back most other formats than what Apple supports by them selves.

That and a local filesystem plugin, but I think there is one of those around already? Hope I'll be able to jailbreak my 16 GB Touch soon...

My #1 wish that doesn't seem to be addressed with this beta is multiple snapshots. One snapshot per OS is pretty lame.

But that being said, the 2.0 beta is MUCH faster at saving snapshots (close to the speed of Parallels).

I don't use it for playing games, nor do I use Unity, so maybe I'm missing most of the bugs I'm reading about ... but for a cross-platform developer, Fusion really is a godsend.

If 2.0 actually has the multiple snapshot feature, I will be very, very happy. And will need to buy a bigger hard drive :)

2.0? Don't make me laugh, some launch feature are still buggy as hell, for example Unity (glitches using Exposé and focus bugs using drag and drop) and Shared Folders (causes XP to freeze for several seconds on each file access).

This "2.0" is a bloody marketing stunt!

Have they fixed it so that it works for the Intel GMA yet? If not, I'm not interested.

As someone who has been fighting to get a Fusion Virtual Machine to see a printer on the Airport Extreme network (the Virtual Machine can access the web via the AEBS but not the printer connected to same) I'm very hopeful about v2.

(FWIW, at the office, it can see the Windows networked printers fine.)

I did notice a bit of a slow down in Fusion 1.1.1, 1.1.2, and even in 2.0 beta after I changed my graphics card from the ATI X1900XT to the new (old) Nvidia Geforce 8800GT for 1st Gen Macs (NG88001GM - even abbreviated it's still a mouth full). I have a 2.66ghz, 2006 Mac Pro with 11gb RAM and am outputting to a 30" Gateway XHD3000 which is a 30" display.

The slow down I see are evident when I minimize a window or open a program or explorer, there is jerkiness and hesitation. I had brought this up in their forums last week and was asked a couple of questions by them as far as updating VMWare tools and what not but nothing ever really developed.

Hey VMWare rep, is the performance hit I took when I changed graphics cards something VMWare can help improve? I haven't really seen a graphics performance penalty in Leopard 10.5.2 after changing to the 8800GT card, I have gained a performance boost (very noticeable) in Windows Vista 32 using bootcamp. VMWare Fusion is definitely slower with the new 8800GT card. I tried version 2.0 with Bootcamp. I also tried version 1.1.2 with Bootcamp and even went as far as installing Windows XP 64 bit using the VMWare install assistant (non-Bootcamp VM).

Does your developer team have any Macs with the Nvidia 8800GT graphics card? Preferably an older MacPro with the Nvidia 8800GT for 1st Gen Macs? Perhaps you may be able to replicate the performance hit and work from there or at least make a statement that your product works best with certain cards. Just thought I'd bring it up before VMWare went out and finalized version 2.0. The performance as it is, is just not acceptable to me.

Although I don't particularly like Parallels, my MacPro performed really well using Parallels 3.0 and the new Nvidia 8800GT card. Which really surprised me because VMWare is supposed to take advantage of the multi-processors of the Macs as well as provide some 3d support. Parallels on the other hand was working really, really well. Please let us know what VMWare plans to do about this.

Oh, and for the rest of the members of this forum, please share your experiences if you have upgraded the graphics card in your MacPro with the 8800GT card. Is your performance slower now? Is it acceptable?