VMware Fusion 2 [OLD VERSION]
by Smith Micro Software Inc.
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Software Reviews of VMware Fusion 2 [OLD VERSION]
Customer Review: Virtualization made easy
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not yet a VMWare power user, but I've managed to get plenty of value out of my copy.
VMWare has been great for running virtual Linux servers on my MacBook Pro. There are prebuilt virtual appliances for every flavor and version of Linux. If you want something custom, it is extremely easy to build your own Linux VM from scratch. Once the image is up and running, you can ssh from your favorite Mac terminal into the virtualized linux box and get to work. Alternately, you can use the VMWare console to directly interact with your linux box.
I didn't expect to need to run Windows XP in vmware, but doing so has been surprisingly useful. I've spent the last few days consolidating small external drives onto a larger drive. Along the way, I found some of my NTFS drives were having read problems. I spun up my XP instance, assigned the drive to it, and was able to run the native NTFS repair utility.
I paid the full retail price for VMWare, and would happily do it again. At the current discounted price, VMWare is a must-buy for anyone who needs to work in a native Linux or Windows environment on their mac.
Several people have mentioned that you need lots of memory to run VMWare. While more memory will definitely help, I've seen very decent performance on my 2GB MacBook Pro when running Linux instances. Windows can chew through memory, but it runs fine if you shut down non-essential mac apps. If you use VMWare extensively, you may want to bump up your system's memory, but 2GB should be plenty to get started.
Customer Review: Buyers Beware: read the addendum below
Summary: 4 Stars
Edit: I would like to downgrade this product to two stars. Please read my addendum in the last paragraph below.
I run VMWARE Fusion 2.0 on my latest MacBook Pro (2.8Ghz, 4GB RAM, 512MB Graphics RAM, 7200RPM drive). I run the Mac OS Leopard and the Vista Business edition (SP2) on a BootCamp partition.
This is an excellent virtual machine software that has been expertly programmed. But to run it properly, you need a robust hardware (preferably the latest iMac or Mac Pro) and a LOT of RAM (I would NOT run VMWARE on a machine with fewer than 4GB of RAM). This software is ideal for a hardware with Quad Core processors (most intel chips, including my MacBook Pro, have only a dual core) with 8GB of RAM. The overall performance of this software on my latest MacBook Pro was barely satisfactory and sluggish. Fortunately, the kind of hardware required to run BOTH the Mac OS and Windows CONCURRENTLY with excellent performance will be common (and fairly cheap) in 2-3 years from now. If you must run both OS and run them well, then I recommend you get the best and the latest hardware at your disposal (Quad core + 8GB RAM).
Pros:
1)VMWARE Fusion 2.0 automatically detected my Vista BootCamp partition and there was no additional configuration neccessary. It also gave me the option of transporting the entire Bootcamp into a virtual machine, BUT that would destroy the dual boot (without using VMWARE) capabilities of my MacBook Pro, which I chose not to do. If you are already using BootCamp, the VMWARE Fusion will logically start the BootCamp Windows instance by default. Please note, as long as you do not transport the BootCamp into virtual machine, you can still dual boot your Mac in either OS.
2)I could run the entire Windows Vista as a separte virtual machine (separate OS instance) on OS X Leopard. I can view Vista either in a window or in a full screen size as if I am running only Windows Vista on a Mac.
3)I can choose to view only the active Vista applications running. The Windows applications will look as if the application is running on OS X Leopard. This is one of the coolest feature of VMWARE Fusion. The Vista application still runs on top of Vista so the Vista still must be started (booted) within the VMWARE first.
4)The VMWARE Fusion is very easy to use. But it helps a lot to be computer savy.
Cons:
1)You will need a robust hardware. You simply can't run two hardware hogging OS (yes OS X Leopard is a hardware hog too) simultaneously with a whimpy hardware.
2)Depending on the hardware, you will need to make some minor adjustments. VMWARE Fusion, by default, only allocates 1GB of RAM to Windows, and that is way too little. You should try to allocate 2GB of RAM (assuming you have 4GB) to VMWARE Windows. In my opinion, you should not run VMWARE Fusion, or other competing products, unless you have a minimum of 4GB of RAM.
3)Running two OS simultaneously using VMWARE Fusion may cause your CPU and Memory to operate at or near its maximum capacity. This may cause overheating of your Mac. Futhermore, any application (either in Mac or in Windows) which is a resource hog will be noticeably slowed down and perhaps even be unusable.
Apple (Snow Leopard) and Microsoft (Windows 7) will be releasing far more efficient versions of their OS in the next coming months in 2009. Futhermore, the hardware will also become far more powerful. These two trends will allow users to run BOTH the MAC OS and Windows concurrently, utilizing VMWARE Fusion, with excellent performance in both operating system environments in the coming 2-3 years.
Addendum:
VMWARE has had some very unfortunate and deliberate side effects to my BootCamp Vista partition. It appears most of the troubles are related in VMWARE's deliberate attempt to nullify the utility of BootCamp partition. Unfortunately, the usage of VMWARE has led me to take on the arduous task of reinstalling Windows Vista using Bootcamp for the following reasons:
1)The installation of VMWARE Tools has completely disabled games that use Direct X Windows graphics technology. After you install VMWARE tools, you will no longer be able to play Windows video games when you boot your Mac using Windows. Worst of all, there is no easy way to undo the damage of VMWARE on Vista. I uninstalled all services and programs related to VMWARE on Vista (including VMWARE tools) and that did not resolve the issues.
2)VMWARE has completely disabled Windows Media player capabilities on my Vista. Again, there is no way to undo the damage (I am sure there is a hack but who wants to hack it?).
Now, I would like to recommend against this product. Please use this product ONLY if you do not plan to use Windows for games or as a media player on the BootCamp partition.
Customer Review: Outstanding USB support
Summary: 5 Stars
Many others have talked about how well Fusion runs Windows in a virtual machine. What really impressed me is its superb support for USB. I haven't found a USB device yet that doesn't work with Windows XP running in the VM, and because I use my VM mostly as a development system for my hobbyist hardware projects, I've really given it a workout. All of these devices work great for me with Fusion:
Keyspan USA-19 USB-to-serial converter as a serial port to interface my Garmin GPSmap 162 with the MapSource software. The key is to plug it in while the VM is already active and use the correct Windows device driver.
Altera USB-Blaster works with Quartus 9.0sp2 in both JTAG and active serial modes for FPGA programming and debugging. I haven't tried passive serial mode.
Microchip ICD-2 in-circuit debugger works with MPLAB 8.10 for microcontroller projects.
Silicon Lab's Toolstick USB programmer/adapters run fine.
And of course, all of my various USB thumb drives work fine.
It's obvious that Fusion's USB implementation is very complete, because it is highly unlikely that the developers made sure each of these rather esoteric devices worked with their software. I no longer need to keep around an old Pentium-III laptop just for my hardware projects.
You do need a lot of RAM to run Windows XP very well in Fusion. I recently upgraded my MacBook Pro to 4GB and it is a lot better experience than it was with only 2GB. Now I can allocate 1GB to the VM without starving my OS X applications for memory. In particular, Visual Studio 2005 runs much better with the additional memory.
Customer Review: Check your Mac for Chipset Compatibility First
Summary: 2 Stars
After going through the process of installing VMware Fusion 2.0.5, then upgrading it from their website, then installing Windows XP, SP2 and all updates and then installing The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth, I found out that VMware Fusion 2 disables 3D acceleration on Macs using ATI chipsets because the chipsets cause Fusion 2.0.5 to fail. VMware claims "I have to wait for new ATI drivers with the fix before I can re-enable 3D acceleration". No time estimate could be given from VMware Fusion Tech Support. The Lord of the Rings game must have 3D acceleration to play. Uninstalled VMware Fusion and created a Boot Camp partition, loaded WinXP, SP2, all updates (went to SP3), loaded The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth and it runs fine.
Was hoping to be able to not reboot every time I wanted to switch OS's. Setting up Boot Camp and installing XP was actually easy, just follow Boot Camp installation instructions.
Customer Review: Worthwhile
Summary: 4 Stars
I used the Windows migration tool to move my Vista Ultimate environment to a VM image. I ran into several driver problems but was able to resolve them via VMWare's support forums.
VM performance on my 4GB MacBook Pro is very good.
I've installed many of my "must have" Windows apps under Windows 7 and haven't encountered any problems.
Interacting with a Windows VM is much easier than interacting with a physical Windows machine; I love being able to drag and drop files across OS's.