Fusion – VMware Virtualization For The Mac

Fusion - VMware Virtualization For The MacLoaded with max usability, VMware’s Fusion brings its polished OS X integration coupled with a super sexy feature called – Unity. Offering the ability to launch and run applications like they were native to your Mac, then switch quickly between those apps and dock them like any others, Unity easily blurs the dividing lines between Windows and Mac OS X interoperability.

On a 2009 Macbook Pro with 64 bit Intel processing horsepower, Fusion runs Windows 7, Ubuntu Workstation, Ubuntu Server and Linux Mint altogether — without making a dent in the performance of other OS X apps.

If you’re game to mix and match things up a bit, Fusion’s Mirrored Folders is another priceless VM feature that affords you freedom to share data across virtual machine and host OS. Your file access options are endless – graphics, music, video, documents — the list goes on.

How about Fusion’s handling of high definition video or high res imaging? Yes, so long as your hardware is up for the ride. Fusion is primed and ready for accelerated graphics right out of the box. No jerkiness. No freezing. (There is however a re-reported bug currently with Apple’s latest OS X 10.5.7 update and its failure to address 3D rendering problems in its ATI card driver. Seems this bug has been ongoing for a couple of years now and unrelated to Fusion.)

The icing on the virtual cake though is Fusion’s seamless USB peripheral support. VMware’s TEAM FUSION blogged it this way:

One of the great things about VMware Fusion being based off of the same mature, decade-in-development code base as virtualization stalwart VMware Workstation, is that we get the benefit of platform features that have been groomed, tried, and tested for years.

All-in-all, VMware’s Fusion is the hit parade virtual machine app for OS X and it’s shaping up to remain hot for the foreseeable future. How could it not get better with VMware as its backer.

Cost for a single-user copy is now running $79.99. Download a 30-day trial here and smash the pedal through the virtual floorboard.

  • YorickPeterse

    Used to work with VMware when I was still running windows, however I'll stick with parallels for the moment.

  • http://techmiso.com Scott Jarkoff

    What is it about Parallels you like better than Fusion?

  • http://techmiso.com/ Rich Chuckrey

    One thing that turned me off with Parallels is its limited number of pre-built appliances. VMware has Parallels beat hands down with it.

  • YorickPeterse

    I don't like one better than the other, it's just that I have parallels installed and it works fine, why bother installing a different application if there's no need to ?

  • http://twitter.com/matchalot matchalot

    how about VirtualBox comparable features runs faster in my experince and… FREE

  • http://techmiso.com/ Rich Chuckrey

    I like the FREE idea. But I'm not impressed with the VirtualBox community. Nor the options in its current release. Looks like the app has promise though — if their developers stick with it and their releases continue to improve. We'll keep an eye on it.

    Was their something other than running faster that got you interested in it?