VMware Fusion goes Beta 153
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.'"
Prize goes to the 3D graphics provider (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:why does linux lag windows in features? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm a linux guy myself, and I love the choices I get (just switched window managers recently, in fact), but that's why you won't get those kind of features when you're running it in a VM session.
Re:It's compatible with the other VMWare products! (Score:1, Insightful)
I'm looking forward to lower-level video hardware access myself. Windows crashing back to a MacOS X desktop when it blue-screens rather than restarting my entire PC is a personal wet dream of mine.
Re:Vista eula (Score:3, Insightful)
I didn't need "permission" to run XP Home in a VM, but because of that license change, now I do with Vista.
Re:Vista eula (Score:5, Insightful)
Ironically, one great use for virtual machines (in the software development world) is to test with different configurations, which you'll be able to do with all versions except HOME. You'll have to run that on a separate PC.
In general, MS is full of crap with their licensing approach here. I need neither the features or functionality of Business or Ultimate, other than I want to run it on a VM on my Mac (vs. a Bootcamp approach). It won't cause me to pay more for a product I don't need or want, instead, I'll stick with XP until they get their head out of their ass or I can kiss that crappy Window OS off once and for all (given MS recent missteps, that could been sooner than expected).
Re:Prize goes to the 3D graphics provider (Score:3, Insightful)
To pick nits, Powermacs are not named because of PowerPC. Just like Powerbooks are not named because of PPC (there were Powerbooks long before the PPC chip). They are so named because they are "power user" machines. iMacs also had PowerPC chips in them, but were not called "iPowerMacs." Xserves had PPC chips in them, but were not name Xpowerservers.
Re:Prize goes to the 3D graphics provider (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't think so. After all, there were Performas made soon after the Powermac, that used the PPC chip. Not that anybody actually bought PPC Performas, but they existed. I think the name was a rather nice coincidence, but was mostly intended to maintain the lineage that started with the Powerbook. When the original Powerbook was released, mobile computing was considered to be a very advanced thing - for "power" users. I believe the intention was to refer to a powerful computer - not the architecture of the processor. After all, no previous Mac used the processor as part of the naming scheme. Quadras did not use "quadra" processors, for example.
I think that lack of correlation between name of the machine, and name of the processor (eg Performa, iMac) shows that this was not a major factor in the naming. Although there might be some argument that the name actually changed. The first PPC machines were called "Power Macintosh" and quite clearly labeled. They were also widely called "Power PC." Later (I can't remember when) they started being referred to as "Powermac" to match the "Powerbook" moniker - and lost the "Power Macintosh" badge on the machines - as Apple moved away from "Macintosh" towards simply "Mac" and later moved towards simply "Apple" rather than "Apple Computer."
Why can't OS X based VMWare of Parallels run OS X? (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't really know how it works internally, but it seems insane you can't virtualize the host OS yet you can virtualize almost any other.