From: Smith Micro Software Inc. Average Rating: Binding: CD-ROM ESRB Age Rating: Everyone 10+ Format: CD Label: Smith Micro Software Inc. Model: VMFUSMBX2 Release Date: August 20, 2007
Features:
Run multiple operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and Solaris, on your Macintosh at the same time as Mac OS X--without rebooting; copy or paste between operating systems, or drag and drop files from desktop to desktop
Run Windows applications just like Mac applications--easily launch your Windows applications and switch between all your Windows and Mac applications; use your familiar Mac keyboard shortcuts the whole time
Capture and save the exact state of your virtual machine with VMware Fusion's innovative Snapshot feature; if your Windows virtual machine becomes unresponsive, use the Snapshot feature to rollback to a known stable state with the click of a button
Take full advantage of 64-bit and multi-core processors of your Mac for maximum flexibility--run 64-bit operating systems such as Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition or leverage Virtual SMP to create and run multi-processor virtual machines
Cutting-edge 3D technology even lets you to play select DirectX 8.1 games on your Mac; get full read/write support for CDs and DVDs and complete USB 2.0 support--even for proprietary video cameras, Bluetooth devices and other Windows-only peripherals
Amazon.com: Run multiple operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and Solaris, on your Macintosh at the same time as Mac OS X--without rebooting. Designed from the ground up for the Mac, VMware Fusion allows you to run Mac and Windows applications side-by-side--quickly and effortlessly sharing information between the two operating systems' environments.
Run Windows and other operating systems on your Mac.
Run any version of Windows.
Full support for Windows, Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD.
Run Windows applications just like Mac applications Say goodbye to the Windows desktop and use the VMware Fusion Launch Palette or Spotlight to easily launch your Windows applications. Switch between all your Windows and Mac applications using Expose. Keep your favorite applications in the Dock, bring forward only the application you care about, and use your familiar Mac keyboard shortcuts the whole time.
Turn back time on your PC Capture and save the exact state of your virtual machine with VMware Fusion's innovative Snapshot feature. If your Windows virtual machine becomes unresponsive, use the Snapshot feature to rollback to a known stable state with the click of a button.
Get the most out of your Mac hardware Take full advantage of 64-bit and multi-core processors of your Mac for maximum flexibility. You can run 64-bit operating systems such as Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition or leverage Virtual SMP to create and run multi-processor virtual machines.
Our cutting-edge 3D technology even lets you to play select DirectX 8.1 games on your Mac. Plus, get full read/write support for CDs and DVDs and complete USB 2.0 support--even for proprietary video cameras, Bluetooth devices and other Windows-only peripherals.
Run multiple operating systems on your Mac with ease Easily use UNIX-based operating systems such as Linux and Solaris right alongside Windows and Mac OS X, with the ease and simplicity you've come to expect from your Mac. Only VMware Fusion makes it possible to copy and paste text between Mac and Linux or Solaris, or to drag and drop files from the Mac desktop to Linux or Solaris.
Get up and running with your favorite Windows applications quickly.
Enjoy access to Windows applications through a familiar Mac interface.
Customize your toolbar for integration with Fusion.
Built for the Mac
Run Windows applications like Mac applications VMware Fusion transforms your Windows applications with VMware Unity feature, giving you the seamless Mac experience you expect. Minimize Windows applications to the Dock, switch between Windows or Mac application with Expose, find and instantly launch any Windows application, and use familiar Mac keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste between Windows and Mac applications.
Designed for the Mac user Get up and running with your favorite Windows applications quickly. VMware Fusion's user interface was designed exclusively for the Mac so things will work the way you expect them to, including customizable toolbars and configuration sheets.
Run Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Mac OS X at the same time Run Microsoft Vista Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate 32-bit or 64-bit editions or any Windows XP edition side-by-side with Mac OS X.
Use your Boot Camp install side by side with your mac Run Windows XP side-by-side with Mac OS X from your existing Boot Camp partition, which VMware Fusion automatically detects and when run the first time is updated to use optimized drivers when run as a virtual machine. Access your existing Boot Camp partition with the flexibility of running Windows natively or as a virtual machine. In addition, VMware Fusion has experimental support for Microsoft Vista on Boot Camp partitions.
Install Windows easily Answer a few simple questions, insert a Windows CD and VMware Fusion does the rest to create a Mac-ready Windows virtual machine without you becoming a Windows expert.
Roll back and recover Rollback allows you to take a Snapshot of the virtual machine at any point in time. If problems occur later, you can roll your virtual machine back to that known-good state with a single click.
Start where you left off The suspend feature stores your applications' states so you can quickly resume work without restarting Windows and opening all your applications.
Move your virtual machine by copying a file Exclusive feature:Your complete virtual machine is stored in a single, easy-to-manage package. Move your virtual machines to another hard drive or Mac simply by copying a file.
Use Shared Folders to share your Mac home folder or other folders to your virtual machines.
The suspend feature stores your applications' states so you can quickly resume work without restarting Windows.
Keep an eye on your laptop's battery level from Windows.
The Most Complete Virtualization Platform
Full support for Windows, Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD on your Mac Exclusive feature: Run 32-bit or 64-bit editions of Windows, Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD on your Mac. Copy and paste text and drag and drop files between your virtual machines and the Mac. Use Shared Folders to share your Mac home folder or other folders to your virtual machines. Resize the virtual machine window and the resolution of the virtual machine automatically changes. You can even download pre-configured Linux or Solaris virtual machines from the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace to get started.
Future Proof with 32-bit and 64-bit virtual machines Exclusive feature: Run both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems in VMware Fusion virtual machines. As the world moves to 64-bit applications, you will be ready with 64-bit virtual machines on the latest Intel Core 2 Duo and Xeon Macs.
Multi-core for maximum flexibility Exclusive feature: Leverage the full power of your Intel Mac by using two-way Virtual SMP to assign multiple cores with your virtual machines for maximum flexibility.
Easily share data between virtual machines and your Mac Use Shared Folders to share your Mac home folder or other folders to your virtual machines. Copy and paste text and drag and drop files between your virtual machines and the Mac.
Run more virtual machines Exclusive feature: VMware Fusion can use the full 16 GB of memory available with the Mac Pro or Xserve to run more virtual machines at the same time.
Accelerated 3D graphics let you run DirectX 8.1 3D savvy applications and play select DirectX 8.1 games.
Accelerated 3D graphics Experimental hardware with accelerated 3D graphics let you run DirectX 8.1 3D savvy applications and play select DirectX 8.1 games in Window XP with Service Pack 2 virtual machines.
USB 2.0 support VMware Fusion offers complete USB 2.0 support--even for proprietary video cameras, GPS, Bluetooth, and other devices that only work in Windows.
CD and DVD burning SuperDrive is fully supported in any virtual machine with VMware Fusion.
Seamless, powerful networking Windows shares your Mac's network connections and provides effortless switching between wired and AirPort/Wi-Fi connections. Add up to ten virtual network interfaces to support private and public networks. Or use host-only networking to keep your virtual machine isolated from the network for maximum safety.
Battery pass-through Exclusive feature: Keep an eye on your laptop's battery level from Windows, ideal when running Windows full screen.
ACPI support Your virtual PC shuts down completely when you say shut down and supports hibernation when using Boot Camp partition virtual machines.
Move to the Virtual World
Migrate your existing Windows PC to a virtual machine Migrate your existing Windows PCs into Mac-ready virtual machines with the free VMware Converter Starter.
Virtual appliances Choose from over 450 3rd party virtual appliances, pre-configured virtual machines designed to meet specific needs, at the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace.
Fully compatible with other VMware products Existing VMware customers can leverage existing VMware virtual machines created with other VMware products, including VMware Workstation, VMware Server, and VMware Infrastructure 3, which are all fully compatible with VMware Fusion.
Switched from Parallels, very pleased I originally switched to Fusion from Parallels because of difficulties running Ubuntu on Parallels 2.0. I had the choice between upgrading to Parallels 3.0 or switching to VMWare Fusion. Ubuntu ran without trouble on the Fusion demo, and Fusion was less expensive than Parallels 3, so I made the switch. I have been pleasantly and consistently surprised at the fine quality with which VMWare Fusion runs and the convenience it provides. It was certainly an upgrade from the Parallels experience.
VMWare Importer quickly and painlessly converted all my VMs from Parallels format to VMWare format (Windows & Linux VMs). I was able to continue to boot to Windows XP on my Boot Camp partition as well.
The Windows-specific features are also a big improvement over Parallels. Unity mode is an excellent experience. The desktop and taskbar disapper, leaving only your applications. Windows applications can be minimized to the Dock, and you can keep application icons in the dock to make launching them easier. To launch any Windows application, simply hit Command+L, type a few characters, and hit enter. It is a similar experience to using Quicksilver on Mac. Using VMWare Fusion, it is easier to launch Windows applications from Mac OS X than from in Windows itself. Additionally, your entire start menu and programs menu is available from the Applications menu in Mac OS X, if you prefer to drill down.
I bought the latest MacUpdate promo bundle recently, which included a license to Parallels 3, so I gave it a try. It was a bad experience. I installed Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop and Server editions. The Desktop edition, even with Parallels extensions, wouldn't connect to a network. The Server edition wouldn't boot at all after installation. Horrible experience. In contrast, Ubuntu 8.04 runs perfectly on Fusion with or without VMWare tools installed.
VMWare Fusion seems faster, but I have no numbers to back that up. It is much less painful to boot into a VM, so I find myself booting them more often. I use Excel fairly often, and find Excel 2008 for mac slow and lacking in features, so for anything more than a simple list, I just boot into Windows and use Excel 2007 instead. It seems that the VMWare technology that has been built over the last ten years to speed up server environments has made the leap to the Mac, and it shows. Parallels simply can't match the VMWare investment in technology.
Another unforeseen advantage to using VMWare fusion is compatibility with other VMWare products. There is a huge library of VMWare "appliances" available for download from their site, and if you use VMWare server (free) on Linux or Windows, those virtual machines can now also be used on your Mac. I also ran into three VMWare images in the wild that I wouldn't have been able to use on my Mac without Fusion: Nokia's Maemo SDK VMWare appliance, Mono's VM appliance, and Stoq's evaluation appliance.
Overall, Fusion is a much less frustrating experience, faster, easier, more flexible, and, for now at least, cheaper when compared to Parallels.
And couple points of criticism:
(An older version of) Fusion caused a Kernel panic on one occasion, though it may have been caused by bad RAM.
I wish VMWare tools had an Ubuntu compatible .deb file to make installation easier.
Command+L was a bad choice for the Launch Applications keyboard shortcut, since Windows+L locks your computer (i.e. sends you to the sign in panel, which is useful if you leave your machine). In unity mode it's fine, because it doesn't lock your VM, but in Single Window mode or Fullscreen mode, it will.
VMware Fusion - works like it says Installed for three days - everything works as promised. Like having a Mac and a PC. (Love that Mac.)
Great program I've been using the software now for about 30 days and for the most part, it's been flawless. The setup was extremely easy and XP runs very smooth. I ran into a major problem at one point, which was resolved by email support (which was pretty prompt). Don't use Time Machine with your virtual machine is the bottom line as it can seriously foul it up. Upon resolution, I've had 0 problems with the software. My friends that run Parallels have had less satisfying results. I would highly recommend it. Would have given it 5 stars except for the big foul up with Time Machine.
Fusion VMware 1 Fusion was very easy to load. I also found the wizards made it easy to create a virtual machine. I use Linux and VMware for servers. The fusion is much easier to use. I do not believe you would need to know VMware to use the fusion product. Microsoft runs faster on the MAC.
Buy this! Far better and more stable than Parallels.
Install and setup is easy and it runs XP faster than my previous PC. As a recent Mac convert, some of my work (web development/graphic design) still needs PC Operating Systems and am able to run XP AND Server 2003 simultaneously side by side with Leopard.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
