The VMware Fusion team has released VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 2. This latest public beta, a free download, builds on VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1, adding the Unity 2.0 suite of Mac-Windows integration features, new ways to protect and manage your virtual machines with multiple snapshots, and a garage full of power tools for technical professionals.
And as previously announced, VMware Fusion 2.0 will be a free downloadable upgrade for all VMware Fusion 1.x customers.
As with Beta 1, VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 2 brings dozens of new features and improvements to the most seamless way to run Windows on your Mac.
Unity 2.0 offers next-generation Mac-Windows integration: Share applications between Windows and Mac. Launch Mac files with Windows applications, and even set web, email, and other links to launch in either your Mac or Windows browser and email clients.
DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2 3D acceleration gets more refined in Beta 2, meaning bigger and badder Windows games will run on a Mac, with no rebooting.
And High Definition video now runs at near native speed, and with less CPU impact on the Mac, opening up the world of Windows-only HD media.
Use VMware Fusion’s Mirrored Folders to seamlessly map the contents of your Mac’s Desktop, Documents, Music, and Pictures folders to show up in your Windows Desktop, My Documents, My Music, and My Pictures folders.
Even map your Mac keyboard to send custom keystroke combinations into your virtual machine.
VMware Fusion 2 Beta 2 Feature Demo:
More info and download link here.
Stuff like this is the reason I ditched Parallels. Clearly the VMWare team is more dedicated and has better resources. It’s looking like running Windows inside the relative safety of a VM on a Mac is becoming the best way to run Windows, period!
Yeah baby!
Free upgrade.
I am glad I’ve made a switch.
VMware always was the market leader in virtualization. It was only a matter of time before they surpassed Parallels. Not that Parallels has a bad solution – I’ve used both. But I use VMware because I can move an image from my Mac to my company PC using VMware Workstation with little effort. I think you can do the same thing using the windows version of Parallels, but who uses THAT? Most of the world uses VMware for virtualization, so this is clearly the way to go. Great to see the support VMware is giving the Mac platform, and the functionality is actually better on the Mac version.
VMware is the safest and best way to run Windows. I use it everyday and it works great. Even with intense stuff like Corel Draw.I needed to max out the memeory in my 24inch iMac, but it works so much better than any other Windows machine I have.
I work with both and prefer Parallels. It has great integration with the Mac OS utilizing the Mac desktop. Has been able to open Windows files from the Mac Desktop for about a year at least.
Also, I didn’t have to do anything to be able to print to my “Mac” printers from Windows via Parallels. VMWare could never do that. Not being a Windows “Power” users I just didn’t have the time to figure it out.
VMWare doesn’t suck at all. But Parallels has offered better ease of use for a long time now.
@Free Government or Others
Does anyone know which virtualization solution utilizes the least cpu resources and RAM? I have a 2 Gb, 2.16 GHz Core Duo MBP and often run out of resources and experience major slowdowns when I’m running Parallels with Mac programs also running, especially programs that require Rosetta.
Can iTunes in both OSs use the same library?