I just installed VMware Fusion 1.0, a new desktop virtualization program that allows you to seamlessly run multiple operation systems on your Intel-based Mac. I setup a virtual machine for Windows Vista on my Mac Pro. The whole process was super easy and took only a few minutes, in fact for me it was much faster than installing Windows on a PC. So far everything works really well and I like it as much, if not more than Parallels Desktop for Mac (another great virtualization program).
Oh and then there’s VMWare’s amazing Unity feature which allows you to run Windows apps alongside your Mac apps. From what I have seen so far, it is even better than the Parallels’ Coherence mode. Here’s a video showing Unity in action.
Paul Stamatiou has a great write-up on VMware Fusion based on his notes from a conference call with VMware when they released Fusion on August 6th
On a sidenote, VMWare just had their IPO yesterday with a 76% gain in just one day, making it the biggest tech stock IPO since Google. It will be interesting to see where things go from here. The good news is that you now have two great choices that will allow your Apple computer to run multiple versions of Windows and Linux, which can save quite a bit of time (switching between computers) and money (additional hardware costs).
UPDATE 1: Randy Stewart just tipped us off to CNET’s performance tests of various virtualization programs on Crave. According to their tests, VMware blows away Parallels. Are there any other tests that you guys know of?
Oh and in my orginal write-up I forgot to mention CrossOver Mac by CodeWeavers, which is another Mac virtualization program. I played around with it a little, but ultimately used Parallels, that is until VMware Fusion was released.
UPDATE 2: Chris Pirillo has posted a video of his comparison between Parallels vs VMware Fusion. Chris says that “idea of ’switching’ is finally worth seriously considering for those of us dyed-in-the-wool Windows users”.
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Scott-
Two questions –
1. do you know if VMWare can import a Parallels install (I’m not looking forward to reinstalling Windows just to try it out).
2. 3d support – does VMWare support Aero and/or DirectX9 apps (like games or Virtual Earth)?
Maybe kinda esoteric questions, but lemme know if you know.
Cheers,
Randy
Randy,
1. Yes, you can convert a Parallels virtual machine into a VMware virtual machine: http://www.vmware.com/community/ann.jspa?annID=391
You can also use an existing boot camp partition of Windows. I did this on my MacBook Pro last night and it was setup in minutes.
This program is super easy to setup and use. Very impressive for a 1.0 release. I can’t wait to see what they do next with it.
2. Regarding your second question, you may want to do a search in VMware’s KB and support forums: http://www.vmware.com/support/
Maybe someone from VMware will jump in here and answer any questions people might have.
I’m pushing to get site wide licenses for Fusion. IT looks amazing, and parallels sucks… eats up so much memory.
I ended up getting Parallels a while back, mainly because it would import my old Virtual PC images, which saved me a *ton* of time from installing various old versions of Windows and getting different versions of IE installed. Does VMware Fusion import Virtual PC images?
Holy god…. If CNET’s tests are accurate, Parallels might be heading for the Trash…
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9760910-1.html?tag=nefd.lede
Except for the fact that Parallels could run Quake, it got royally trounce in CNET’s speed tests.
Eek. I’ve been a loyal Parallels user since its first release.
Cheers,
Randy
I, of course, bought Parallels three weeks ago. And six weeks ago? I bought iWork ‘06. I should go buy a bunch of copies of OS X Tiger in late September, just to round out my nearly-obsolete software buying spree. Le sigh.
I’ve been a Parallels user since it was in beta and have installed it at several customer’s sites. And while Parallels is a great product and their staff is undoubtedly overworked, the two answers to support issues I’ve submitted were very rude. Combine that with a consistent (apparently unsolvable) issue with dropped connections from Parallels-Win and WIndows servers, and I’m ripe to dive into VMWare.
Anyway, just wanted to post this link as I was searching for a way to recycle my Microsoft tax from Virtual PC into Parallels (and then into Fusion) and found this direct route from Virtual PC WinXP Pro to self-contained bootable disk (usable in Parallels or VMWare Fusion).
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060527175405403
BTW, Mark Jaquith – Le Very Funny! I feel your pain.