I am pleased to report that hell on the Mac will be a little more tolerable, now with the 2.0 update to VMware Fusion. One of the three contenders for running Windows virtually on the Mac, Fusion has taken leaps and strides since its original beta launch back in 2006.
After having gone through various beta stages, the update finally got its finishing touches with a whole lot of new features, that is definitely gonna make Windows smoke on the Mac.
Fusion 2.0 supports DirectX 9.0c for your gaming pleasure, 1080p HD video playback, multiple snapshots, four-way vSMP, and better Linux support. It also offers driverless printing (everything just gets filtered through to your Mac’s printer setup), “true” multiple monitor support, and automated snapshots of your virtual machine so you can roll back anytime something goes terribly wrong. – Ars Technica
Fusion also comes with a lot of other features like USB 2.0 support for most devices, keyboard mapping so you don’t get lost with the Mac keyboard, and the Unity view which allows Windows applications to run side by side with your Mac apps.
The 2.0 software is a free update for 1.x users, and costs $80 for everyone else. Of course, there’s a free 30 day trial for those who would just like to see how much virtualisation has evolved, and then dismiss the thought of keeping Windows so close to their Mac.
For those who want a totally free version, check out our writeup on VirtualBox.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
VMWare Fusion rules the party here.. even its first version was miles ahead of Parallels in features such as 64-bit Linux support, way better easy installation and it also ate less resources.. Parallels offered better gaming support but any gamer would simply run Windows on Mac natively with the Boot Camp utility.. great product though