VMware has released Fusion for Mac Beta 2.
VMware Fusion for Mac is a desktop application that lets you create and run virtual machines on your Intel-based Mac. With Fusion, you can run Windows applications on your Intel-based Mac. You can also download virtual machines from the VMware Technology Network (VMTN) Website, which has a growing library of virtual appliances with a wide range of pre-installed and preconfigured applications and operating systems.
Features of VMware Fusion:
• You can use 32-bit and 64-bit guest operating systems in Fusion virtual machines. Fusion supports Windows, Linux, and Solaris operating systems in virtual machines.
• Fusion supports all Intel Mac hardware, including the new 64-bit Mac Pro and iMac.
• Your virtual machines can have multiple virtual processors, taking advantage of the Intel Core Duo chips in today’s newest Intel Macs.
• Fusion supports high-speed USB 2.0 for a huge range of devices. Even devices that do not have drivers for Mac OS X will work in a virtual machine.
• Virtual machines seamlessly integrate with your Mac: you can cut and paste text between your Mac and your virtual machines, drag and drop of files between your Mac and your • virtual machines, and create shared folders on your computer so you can easily share files and folders between your Mac and your virtual machines.
• You can burn CDs or DVDs to your Mac’s rewritable optical drive from within your virtual machine.
• You can resize your virtual machine’s display dynamically.
The Beta 2 release of VMware Fusion for Mac includes the following new features and feature improvements:
• Experimental 3-D graphics support — Play a selection of DirectX 8.1 games in Windows XP Service Pack 2 virtual machines.
• Snapshot feature — Roll back your virtual machine to a known good state when something goes wrong in your virtual machine—for example, when your virtual machine picks up a virus, or when a software upgrade causes problems.
• Improved networking — Automatically bridge to the computer’s primary network interface.
• Full support for Airport wireless networking, including virtual machines behind a NAT firewall and bridged to the local Airport network.
• Support for up to ten virtual network interfaces
• Improved Microsoft Vista support — Support for Microsoft Vista Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions.
• Complete VMware Tools support for Microsoft Vista including copy/paste, dragging and dropping files, shared folders, and screen resizing.
• Improved hardware editor — Add additional virtual hard drives to a virtual machine for needed capacity.
• View the physical computer’s battery status in the virtual machine.
• Improved full screen mode — Support for plugging and unplugging displays while virtual machines are in full screen mode.
• Improved usability: an on-screen tip shows how to enter and exit full screen mode easily.
• Experimental support for Mac OS X Leopard — You can now install and run VMware Fusion on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). Support is experimental because Mac OS X 10.5 is not yet released. Fusion will support the release version of OS X 10.5 in the final VMware Fusion release.
VMware testing has determined that the following games, running in Windows XP Service Pack 2 virtual machines, are playable with Fusion experimental 3-D acceleration:
• Aliens vs. Predator Demo
• Breath of Fire IV
• Grand Theft Auto III (Tip: Set the Display Setup option Trails to OFF.)
• Hitman 2
• Lord of the Realms III
• Max Payne 1
• Max Payne 2
• Need for Speed Porsche Demo
• RalliSport Challenge
• Tony Hawk 3
• X-2 Rolling Demo
More info and download link here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Richard” for the heads up.]
• Experimental 3-D graphics support — Play a selection of DirectX 8.1 games in Windows XP Service Pack 2 virtual machines.
Now thats what we have been waiting for !!
How about support for games that people actually play now?
Think I might be moving to VMWare Fusion now
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> bye bye parallels
MDN word direct, as in direct competition.
Apple could not ask for a better situation, not only is there one company doing an outstanding job in Parallels, but now theres competition too.
I know Microsoft makes money from people running their OS on Macs but i think it must shit them to tears when they see their crappy os on a mac, knowing full well people will only use their os when absolutely needed.
Afterall when someone has Parallels or Fusion on their mac its because they usually have one or so apps that they have to use, such as IE for web testing. If they wanted to use windows full-time they wouldve bought a pc.
Hey Carlo.
You are absolutely right in my case as I build websites on a Mac. Design for safari & firefox then go into parallels to test the sites in IE on my bottom of the range mac mini. A few minor IE tweaks (sometimes major ones) then I am done.
And I can run 2 installs of Windows. 1 for IE6 and 1 for IE7.
Now here is the rub. Should a web designer pay for a license of XP if all they need it for is because M$ can’t build browsers that render CSS properly? Other question is. Should they buy 2 licenses of XP if they test in IE6 and IE7 because they can’t run both on one copy of windows as it’s integrated into the OS?
Bare this in mind. It is hard to justify charging for IE tweaks so tweaking for IE just shaves a bit of your profit.
I would love to know your opinions.
1) should they pay for 1 license
2) should they pay for both licenses
3) should they bill Microsoft for the lost profit.
VMWare still has a long way to go before they catch Parallels. 3D support for old games like these certainly isn’t near enough to pull them even yet. I’ve used both the VMWare beta and Parallels 2.5, and at this point in time, Parallels is still by far the more polished and stable product of the two.
This is looking *real* good. By the time I’m ready to migrate from PPC to Intel I should have two viable options. I hope VMware, as an Enterprise oriented company, releases a version suitable for server use. Imagine how many more Xserves might be sold into computer rooms in place of the more common Dell and HP.
Snapshot feature — Roll back your virtual…—for example, when your virtual machine picks up a virus,….
Virus-not on my Mac!
Games?
British Mac Head
Why don’t web designers just stop building for Internet Explorer all together. PC users could always view sites using Firefox.
Career Builder,
uh… yes. Did you read the article – and the dozen comments referencing the games?
…which all goes to prove that Microsft is the shitties most evil business ever created..
Well done VMWare
Developers are still stuck on the fact that they are smart, and because they are smart, they can make it work. It’s just the “l(users)” who can’t, and thus need to live in restricted environments that the developers prescribe. So there’s the “big brain syndrome” in effect. There’s also a lot of shame in admitting that you screwed up in coding only for IE, as developers will go through any amount of finger-pointing to deflect blame. Finally, many developers have lived in a Windows-only world for a long, long time. They are very resistant to change, which is incredibly ironic given the nature of the software development industry.
The problem really is that a lot of companies hired technology specialists who can’t or won’t think outside of their specialty. It’s an educational problem in general (the death of the specialist), because it makes adapting to technological shifts virtual bloodbaths. The specialists can’t see unities (only particulars) and thus when change comes, they fight tooth and nail to preserve the status quo, because their survival as a niche worker is threatened. And yes, these are the same people who ridicule Apple as a boutique manufacturer.
What Career Builder wrote.
British Mac Head: I’m in the same position, but I found a nifty little freeware program called MultipleIEs (find it here http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE) that allows you to do what you need on 1 Windows install. I have IE 6 & 7 sitting side by side for that dreaded time when I have to check a site in Windows. According to feedback there are some glitches and things that don’t always work, but to check basic rendering of pages and performance it’s worked flawlessly for me.
just tried it on Vista and I was rather disapointed
direct X 8.x only Vista REQUIRES directX 9 or above to even opne the DVD making program and on my MAcbookPro core2duo there isnt even glass enabled as it says the video card wont support it which is nuts but obviously the driver VMare uses does show it appropriately to Vista.
So not alot of good if you want to run Vista better try it on XP or below. But then again the more I use Vista the more I realise how much I hate it especially compared to XP.. It makes me almost like XP! much cleaner system and alot better laid out in my opinion
harpo64
Thanks for that mate. I would prefer to have one doze install on my Mac Mini and also a linux install just to play with rather than two shitty doze installs so I will give that a try. Nice one.
BMH.