VMware Fusion 2 [OLD VERSION]
by Smith Micro Software Inc.
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Software Reviews of VMware Fusion 2 [OLD VERSION]
Customer Review: Software Has Issues With Snow Leopard 10.6.
Summary: 1 Stars
I have two reasons for giving VMWare Fusion 2.05 (latest version) such a low rating. One is technical and the other is a business reason. First the Technical issue. VMWare Fusion has issues with Snow Leopard 10.6. After installing Snow Loepard 10.6 performance went down running Windows Vista. Sometimes my Windows Vista session would freeze for minutes before coming back. The mouse was also very erratic. It would freeze 6 or more times an hour. I would have to get the pointer back to the Mac desktop and then back to the Vista desktop to work. I do have a fix for this problem if it occurs for you. Dump VMWare Fusion and switch to Parallels instead. I downloaded the free trial from Parallels and it fixed the problems I was having and drastically improved performance. It took me an hour or more to convert my VMWare Fusion image to Parallels, but it was worth the effort. I have now purchased Parallels and have been using it for five days now and everything works great.
My business reason is simple. I purchased VMWare Fusion in April and I still have not received my rebate yet. When I submitted the rebate materials, they lost it. I was able to scan my copy of the rebate materials into a PDF and email it to them. They acknowledged these materials in June, but I still have not received the rebate and it is almost October. I pinged them again about the rebate last week and I was told it was in the mail. I guess I will find out about the rebate next week. I hope.
Bottom line. I highly recommend Parallels over VMWare Fusion--especially if you want to use it with Snow Leopard 10.6.
Update to my review. It looks like the new version of VMWare Fusion 2.0.6 that came out on 10/2/2009 fixes the problem with the mouse. I also finally received my rebate check after waiting five months last week. It would have been nice, if VMWare Fusion would have worked correctly when Snow Leopard was released. At least it appears to be fixed now. I am now running both Parallels and VMWare Fusion. I use Parallels for my most important VM that I use constantly everyday. I am using VMWare Fusion for some of my development Windows XP Pro images and it appears to work fine, but I only need to use them intermittantly. Overall, I still recommend Parallels over VMWare Fusion. It appears in my opinion to have better performance and to be more rock solid.
Customer Review: Functional, but buggy
Summary: 3 Stars
I use VMware Fusion at work and at home. The short version is that while it works most of the time, it definately has a "personality". I chalk this up to a product that is still maturing.
Some issues I have noticed:
For one thing if you have FileVault enabled for your home directory it has a major impact on Fusion performance. I've also had a Windows XP Pro SP3 VM session bluescreen during VoiP calls for which I was using an external USB headset. Debugging the resulting windows "dump" file showed that for a moment, Fusion "forgot" that the virtual USB controller was still present in the Windows session. This has happened more than once. There is a severe memory leak with my particular setup such that if i run Windows for 8 hours (i.e. a work day) Fusion will consume all available RAM (4GB physical RAM). While most memory will be recovered if Fusion is completely shut down, all of the leaked memory won't be recovered until a restart of OS X.
I have noticed that Linux VMs run faster and with much fewer issues on the same Macbook Pro.
In general if the Fusion application sharing feature and keyboard copy feature are enabled, memory usage is much higher and performance is slower.
These are specific issues I have had. Each 2.x patch released for Fusion seems to make things a bit better, but I think there is still a ways to go to fully mature this product.
All this being said, I do use Fusion daily and will continue to do so since it is very helpful and certainly helps my productivity in any environment, whether at home or at work.
Customer Review: Easy to use, makes my mac a PC when I like
Summary: 5 Stars
I like this application. It was easy to install and allows me to go back and forth between my Mac and PC applications without rebooting. With the rebate it was a great deal.Customer Review: Works Great
Summary: 5 Stars
Haven't used Parallels yet but I have to say VMware works great on my Mac Pro. It's easy to use and easy to set up. Works just as fast as a regular PC using most of my apps. If you get into heavier stuff like audio and/or video editing then things can slow up a little but nothing to complain about. I really like this product.Customer Review: Does what it promises
Summary: 3 Stars
First, a disclaimer: I've never liked emulation software. I've always found that the reduction in performance and speed makes the emulation experience unbearable. I decided to give VMware Fusion 2 a try, because I wanted to run the Oxford English Dictionary on my MacBook pro, and my copy of the OED is the PC version. So I installed Fusion 2 with Windows XP; everything ran without a hitch. But it ran slowly. The OED is hardly a demanding program. After using it several times, I've resolved to bite the bullet and purchase the Mac version of the OED. If you can handle slow performance or have no choice but to run PC software on your Mac, this seems to be an adequate solution. But frankly, I'd consider buying an inexpensive PC laptop before I'd want to use this -- or any other emulation software -- application on a regular basis.