VMware Fusion goes Beta

Rahul writes "Fusion is a new VMware product that enables Intel-based Macs to run Windows and Linux in virtual machines on Mac OS X. The Mac virtualization market is presently dominated by Parallels and it will be worth watching if VMware can gain the mindshare despite its late entry. Ars Technica reports: 'The nice thing about VMWare Fusion is that it already supports some of the stuff that the Parallels Beta2 released yesterday just added, such as USB 2.0 and most USB devices, CD/DVD drive support, and drag-and-drop between environments (unless the guest environment is Linux, that is). You can also run multiple Fusion environments at once or assign multiple processors to your virtual machine(s), if you're into that sort of thing.'"

Re:Competition is a GREAT thing

[0racle]

It's set up like their workstation product (not free) and in the FAQ for the release they state that a final price has not been set. During the VMWare Server beta it was made clear Server was going to be free after the beta for both personal and commercial use.

Re:why does linux lag windows in features?

[che]

Actually, VMware Fusion ships with VMware Tools for Linux, Solaris, NetWare, and Windows.

You can copy and paste and drag and drop to and from Linux, Solaris, and Windows, and easily change the resolution of the Linux VM.

Re:Prize goes to the 3D graphics provider

[mrycar]

UGS NX is supported on OS X and Linux.

first comparisions

[Anonymous Coward]

I have both the latest Parallels Beta and the fusion beta running with win2k.

- Fusion seems a bit slower/sluggish from a user perspective, but that might be due to driver issues.

- Fusion does not handle dual headed machines in full screen mode as well as Parallels, as the fusion full screen mode is designed for single headed situations (main menu handling)

- Fusion handles Networking much better than Parallels. E.g. my cisco VPN works out of the box in shared mode. I never got it to work with Parallels, athough they claim to support it.

- General Driver support is better with Parallels, except networking

- Additional tool support like drive compression is better with Parallels

- Parallels support Boot Camp partitions.

I probably will go with Fusion unless Parallels gets their networking situation straight, but tiime will tell :-)

Re:Prize goes to the 3D graphics provider

[revscat]

Inside Mac Games had an interview [insidemacgames.com] recently with a PR guy from Parallels where he says "The goal is to have OpenGL and DirectX support in our next version, which should be in beta around the turn of the year."

You know, I'd really be curious to see how some of the CAD programs behave on a PowerMac with Parallels. Those are really fast machines. It would be an expensive experiment, but you're not the first CAD user I've heard mention this. A friend of mine works at an architecture firm, and he also mentioned the lack of CAD software available on the Mac as being the main reason he couldn't get one.

Re:why does linux lag windows in features?

[jrockway]

Parallels is pretty new to the market, so I doubt anyone is using it to run linux. VMWare doesn't have the clock skew problem. (And in fact, it makes a great server environment.)

> -Use the nifty new feature that eliminates the Windows desktop and instead just shows the application window on the OS X desktop

This is really a nasty hack-on-a-hack for Windows. With Linux + OS X, just fire up Apple's X server and tell your Linux image that the X server is at "yourmac:0", and then start up your X session. The windows will all appear on your OS X desktop. This is how X has worked since the 80s. :)

Re:Vista eula

[0racle]

Where the hell did this idea start? Who is it that can't read? HOME versions of Vista have an EULA that prohibits running them in Virtualization, Business and Ultimate however do not. Microsoft has taken the position that home users are not all that interested in advanced features while Enthusiasts and Corporations are.

Besides, 3d acceleration is not included in Fusion, though that might change, and is only experimental in their more mature Workstation product.

Re:why does linux lag windows in features?

[lachlan76]

Are you talking about having windows on the main desktop? The window manager would go on the host in this case, and you can just use the normal X11 server to do this. Just set up an SSH tunnel to the VM, or run it through the VM's network adaptor.

Re:Vista eula

[Kymermosst]

Its too bad vista bans running windows on a virtual machine. I imagine this solution will be outdated quick as soon as directx10 games become standard.

No. What you mention only applies to the Vista Home edition license. The Vista Ultimate version specifically gives permission to use it in a virtual machine. Both of these are "Vista".

I don't like Microsoft either, but at least I try to badmouth them accurately.

Re:Multi-CPU support?

[jarich]

I'll have to dig it out (and I'm on a different computer right now).

It's a tool for importing a VMWare image, or an image from a real Windows box.

VMWare is coming late to the game, but this is a feature they'll have to match.

Re:why does linux lag windows in features?

[caseih]

If you're trying to run a small set of applications in Linux, why are you running a desktop environment and doing things the MS Windows way? Don't boot linux up to graphical mode. Just leave it in text mode. Run parallels minimized to the dock. Then a quick script can ssh into the linux machine, run the program, and dump the display out to Apple's wonderful, integrated X11 server, giving you the integration feature you want (clipboard and everything). While there's not yet a shared folder thing for Linux, you can turn on Windows sharing in OS X's System Preference and just have your startup scripts in Linux smbmount the share so you can can transparently access data across the Mac/Linux divide.

Whether you're using OS X and Parallels or VMWare, this is the best solution for almost all situations. That is why no one has great VMWare or Parallels tools for Linux. They simply aren't needed, since you don't need a dedicated window to view the VM desktop. Let's use the God-given features of X11 to our benefit!

Re:Multi-CPU support?

[Anonymous Coward]

See the free VMware Converter: http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/converter/ [vmware.com]

Re:Prize goes to the 3D graphics provider

[Pfhor]

Nope, you are wrong. Power Mac was first introduced with the powerpc line of desktop computers.

PowerBook was a term apple was using for their laptops, which did not start with powerpc chips.

I've run Pro/E on a Mac Pro

[JoshWurzel]

I had the fortune to being able to test Parallels and Pro/Engineer on my father's Dual-2.66 Ghz Quad Core mac pro. It has 5 gigs of ram, a radeon X1900 with 512 MB of ram, and a 23" cinema display.

Let me tell you how it behaves: Not great.

I'd imagine for small changes and assemblies its probably usable, but I pulled up my largest project to really put it through its paces. This is an assembly with hundreds of parts in it, mostly sheetmetal. Parallels seriously needs 3D acceleration. It is also worth noting that the only graphics card on any mac that is listed as supported by Pro/E (see PTC's website) is the Quadro FX 4500, which is a $1700 BTO option.

I was able to select and redefine features, but screen regens were horribly slow. Pan/Zoom/Rotate was totally unavailable despite the multi-button mouse and Parallels wouldn't recognize my spaceball at all (yes, I installed the driver software).

I wasn't able to get boot camp running because the X1900 + 23" display does not work with boot camp presently (apparently this is a widespread issue discussed on the Apple forums).

I'll be testing it on my macbook pro (core 2 duo 2.33 ghz) next week in both boot camp and parallels, though I don't expect much performance. Our Pro/E guru at work tells me that the graphics card is going to be the biggest problem for performance if its not an officially-supported card (and the X1600 on my macbook isn't on that list either).

Despite all the performance lags, I was so excited just to be running Pro/E on a mac that I imagine it can only get better from here. And if not...I don't really want to do work at home anyway! ;) I plan to keep testing it, though, because its important to me and I have the resources to do it. For some reason, no one else does.

Re:Multi-CPU support?

[yabos]

Erm, are you saying Parallels doesn't support both cores because mine sure does.

Re:Multi-CPU support?

[Hadley]

VMware is not at all late to the game - they have been doing x86 virtualization really well for almost 10 years.

To create a VMware image from a real Windows box, use the VMware Converter [vmware.com] (a free download).

There is also a free importer that converts images from other formats (not sure if it supports parallels).

Re:Multi-CPU support?

[mithras the prophet]

The Mac version includes the Compressor, which otherwise sells separately for $50.

Re:Prize goes to the 3D graphics provider

[JoshWurzel]

Um, no. AutoCAD does not even exist in the parametric 3D modelling area. That field is dominated by Pro/E, solidworks, CATIA, and UGS.

That doesn't mean that someone can't need AutoCAD and declare that the mac is insufficient because its not available, but my money says that AutoCAD will run better in emulation than the other packages simply because it doesn't have the 3D capabilities the others do.

Blogs by the VMware engineers

[Anonymous Coward]

For anyone interested, two blogs by engineers on VMware Fusion:

• http://compfusion.blogspot.com/2006/12/good-day. html (Tech Lead)
• http://infusion.vox.com/

(- A friend who wants to give them a virtual pat on the back)

Re:Prize goes to the 3D graphics provider

[diamondsw]

Not to nitpick the nitpick, but the Power Mac was originally names as such because of the PowerPC chip. The first models were the 6100, 7100, and 8100, which used the PowerPC 601 in 1994. The PowerBook, however, did predate the PowerPC chip by at least a year or two.