Filed under: Enterprise, Software, Leopard
VMWare Fusion 2 Beta 2 available now
The VMWare team has just released the second beta for VMWare Fusion 2.0, the company's popular virtualization program for the Mac.
The new beta adds a TON of new features, as the video above demonstrates. I got a chance to talk to VMWare today about the new beta and it is HOT. I'll be posting a more in-depth overview tomorrow, but until then, here are some of the highlights:
- Unity 2.0 - The newest version of Fusion is really focused on better Windows-Mac integration. You can now launch Windows programs from the dock or access Mac programs from within your virtual machine. You can also link folders like Documents, Pictures and Music on your virtual machine with those folders on your Mac.
- Multiple Snapshots VMWare has worked really hard to bring a Time Machine-like ease to backing up and protecting your virtual machine. You can now designate how often you want to take full system snapshots of your VM, whether once an hour, once a day or once a week, and how many copies you want to keep.
- Better Video and Graphics Graphics and shading support has been improved for Macs that have higher-end graphics cards, and even integrated Macs can now play 1080p HD video in virtual machines with considerably less CPU overhead.
- Support for more client OSs, including Leopard Server You can now run Leopard Server as a VM in OS X 10.4 and 10.5, even on client machines (virtualizing Mac OS X client is blocked by Apple's license terms). Support for the latest version of Ubuntu (Hardy Heron) is also available right out of the box with Unity integration. Power users can now designate up to four virtual CPUs per virtual machine, which is great for anyone wanting to take an XServe or Mac Pro to the next level.
VMWare Fusion 2.0 beta 2 is available for Intel Macs running OS X 10.4 or OS X 10.5. New users can try the beta for free and the upgrade path (including future betas and the full version of Fusion 2.0) is free for all existing Fusion 1.0 customers.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Timan said 9:29PM on 7-30-2008
The shadows still look like they're from Tiger :(
Reply
Chris Gardner said 10:25PM on 7-30-2008
> The shadows still look like they're from Tiger :(
Seriously? That's what you're worried about?
Simon Arch said 4:45PM on 7-31-2008
Well, that and the polar bears. But the polar bears don't have those HIDEOUS drop shadows.
:)
Marcos said 9:30PM on 7-30-2008
The competition has just been blown out of the water.
Reply
Tomahawk said 6:41PM on 7-31-2008
I have to agree, Parallels needs to bow out and focus on putting more development and marketing into their Parallels Virtuozzo Containers, which is truly an amazing application that doesn't get the credit it deserves.
Roberto said 9:46PM on 7-30-2008
I'll be very impressed if the snapshot feature works in the Bootcamp VM (I'll be betting for No).
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Vinay Venkatesh said 9:52PM on 7-30-2008
Actually having snapshots on a Bootcamp VM is probably bad. Because of the way snapshots work, if you change the base disk (in this case, the raw partition), you'll end up hosing all of your snapshots. Basically, this is bad.
While I can see the usefulness of suspend/resume, if you're using snapshots on a bootcamp vm, you might as well have it as a full vm.
dagamer34 said 1:01AM on 7-31-2008
You can't suspend a BootCamp VM because you can boot to it outside of VMware. That would create a whole HOST of issues.
Unless you're gonna game on your Mac, it's better to go with installing Windows strictly from inside VMware.
Jason said 10:12PM on 7-30-2008
Does it play Team Fortress 2 yet?
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Daniel Tull said 5:34AM on 7-31-2008
It's really the only feature missing at this point. :D
Risto said 12:52AM on 7-31-2008
Linux Unity
... woooooot
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brian said 3:10AM on 7-31-2008
But will it run Crysis?
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julian said 3:39AM on 7-31-2008
linux unity yay... but something that has always bothered me about virtualization software is... arent you making your computer more vulnerable to viruses and all the other stuff that running on Unix kind of protects you from?
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Dan said 11:13AM on 7-31-2008
Wow! The performance enhancements over Beta 1 - which was a dog when in came to suspending and restarting VMs is PHENOMENAL!!!
Upgrade!
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w00t said 4:14AM on 7-31-2008
Woah, this looks fantastic.
The gap between Fusion and Parallels just got a whole lot wider :)
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Aeschylus said 6:03AM on 7-31-2008
I'm sorry, did a monkey write this article? First of all, the plural of "OS" is not "OSs"--it's "OSes". Dummy. Second, capitalizing every letter of a word to give it emphasis is about as amateurish as it gets.
You are a hack.
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Jim said 7:52AM on 7-31-2008
What the fuck is your problem?
I for one feel that OSs is perfectly acceptable, if not the proper way to write it. Why would I add an e? You don't do it for any other word, so why would I do it now?
And secondly, why shouldn't they add emphasis? It's a fucking BLOG for Christ's sake.
Craig Knighton said 8:17AM on 7-31-2008
Really.
OS stands for Operating System, the plural is therefore Systems.
Where did you magic the 'e' from? You aren't actually pluralizing the S, you are pluralizing systems.
For clarity most publications use the apostrophe to separate so it would be OS's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym
Mocking a writing style when there are no definitive hard and fast rules is quite dumb imo.
Robert Palmer said 10:04AM on 7-31-2008
Wow, your comment was tantamount to standing up in the middle of a crowded restaurant and yelling "I HAVE A WEENER," just so people know how manly you are.
Alex McKee said 11:09AM on 7-31-2008
@Robert Palmer
Your comment just made my day.