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VMware Fusion 2

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From: Smith Micro Software Inc.
Category: Software

List Price: ~~$79.99~~
Buy New: $62.99
You Save: $17.00 (21%)

New (16) Used (1) from $54.99

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

66 reviews
Sales Rank: 34

Format: Cd-rom
Platform: Mac Os X Intel
Media: CD-ROM
Operating System: Mac OS X Intel
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 5.3 x 7.5 x 1.3

MPN: vmfm20bx2
Model: VMFM20BX2
UPC: 717103883675
EAN: 0717103883675
ASIN: B001F5VBRU

Release Date: October 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

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Features:

	Run Windows side-by-side with Mac OS X without rebooting
	Run Windows applications across multiple screens; instantly launch Windows applications from any Mac file, the Dock and more
	Use Expose to switch between Windows and Mac applications; minimize Windows applications to the Dock
	Run 3D games, design software and other graphics-intensive apps with support for DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2 3D hardware-accelerated graphics
	Use Windows-only USB devices on your Mac, including GPS receivers, cell phones, PDAs, and iSight cameras

Get the best of both worlds.

Moving to the Mac is easy.
Getting started is a breeze. Import your existing Windows PC with VMware Converter, or easily install a new Windows OS in a few simple steps with Windows Easy Install.

Graduate from Boot Camp.
VMware Fusion is the perfect complement to Apple's Boot Camp. No more choosing between Mac or Windows on boot; run Windows side-by-side with Mac OS X from your existing partition. And when you're ready, import your Boot Camp partition to reclaim extra space and enjoy great features such as Snapshots, AutoProtect, and Suspend and Resume.

3D for you and me.
Run 3D games, design software and other graphics-intensive apps with support for DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2 3D hardware-accelerated graphics.

Displays for days.
Use Windows applications across as many displays as you please--up to eight screens.

Mac to the core.
Built from the ground up for the Mac, VMware Fusion works the way you expect with customizable tool bars, Quick Look integration, searchable Apple help and more.

Airbags for your Mac.
Take snapshots of your Windows installation, and always have the option to roll back to a safe state in case of trouble. And with AutoProtect, automated snapshots let you easily go back in time to before problems occurred.

USB without limits.
VMware Fusion lets you use Windows-only USB devices on your Mac--from GPS receivers, to cell phones, PDAs and even Apple iSight cameras.

Keep the bugs away.
To keep Windows XP and Windows Vista on your Mac as safe as possible, VMware Fusion includes a complimentary 12-month subscription to McAfee VirusScan Plus.

Maximize your Mac.
Take your Mac to the max by running virtual machines with up to four virtual CPUs, 8GB of RAM and with 64-bit operating systems.

Features:

Seamlessly integrate Windows applications with the Mac
Instantly launch Windows applications from any Mac file, the Dock and more
Run Windows side-by-side with Mac OS X without rebooting
Minimize Windows applications to the Dock
Use Expose to switch between Windows and Mac applications
Import an existing PC with VMware Converter
Install new Windows OS with Windows Easy Install
Run Windows applications across multiple screens
Use Windows-only USB devices on your Mac, including GPS receivers, cell phones, PDAs, and iSight cameras
Run 3D games, design software and other graphics-intensive apps with support for DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2 3D hardware-accelerated graphics
Winner of more than a dozen industry awards

Customer Reviews: Read 61 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Smooth and the program gives access to PC programs October 21, 2008
M. Ash
18 out of 20 found this review helpful

My daughter, the resident techno geek, installed the VMware Fusion 2 virtual machine program on our iMac yesterday. After installation she played Guild Wars and Oblivion using the virtual machine. Guild Wars ran fairly well and both the audio and video was smooth. Oblivion, which is a memory hog, didn't fare so well. It crashed the virtual machine. So it was a no go for Oblivion.

Today, I fired up the VMware Fusion 2 virtual machine and used it to run Mastercook. I love Mastercook and was sad to quit using the program as it does not run on a Mac. Low and behold, I was up and running Mastercook through the virtual machine. The program ran smoothly, relatively quickly, and I was so pleased to have my old friend back.

Our Mac runs at 2.16 ghz and has 1 GB memory. By the way, our Mac is a Intell Core 2 Duo machine.

Also, the virtual machine accessed Boot Camp on the partition, for all the Mac geeks who are interested. The partition access was done automatically.

We have used both Parallels and VMware Fusion 2 and we much prefer the Vmware Fusion 2 program.

Overall, we are very pleased with this software. It was very easy to install, as my daughter says it was a couple clicks, and she was done.

Note: Yesterday I ran into a minor problem using the VMware Fusion 2 virtual machine. I tried to print out sewing patterns using the virtual machine. The sewing pattern pieces did not print correctly using the virtual machine. I had to print the patterns directly through Boot Camp.

I am still very pleased with the ease of use with this software program. It is rare that I have to go to the "dark side" but when I do the VMware Fusion 2 makes the swap easy.

5 out of 5 stars

Fusion, Not Parallels, Is The Way To Go, A Critical Review November 16, 2008
Andre Lawrence (Miami, Florida)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

I am a Mac owner and a former PC owner--Compaq. I have quite a few PC software that would be very expensive to replace because of the difference between the Mac OS and Windows. So what to do?
A few years ago when I was saving up to make the switch, there was only one software available--"Virtual PC"--then, Microsoft bought them out. Then, came word that several private companies were working on their own virtual software. Parallels Desktop for Mac came out and then came news of the Wine project-- a group of engineers whom pooled their resources to develop a kind of "anti-operating system" if you would. Once installed, many Windows based software would automatically install itself on the Mac (or Linux) operating system, thus bypassing the need to buy a Windows operation system or re-purchase the software for the different platform. One of the contributors to the Wine Project, Codeweavers developed their own brand of Wine, called "CrossOver For Mac,"with modifications and some improvements over the collective project.

I decided that I needed to get Parallels because I couldn't get my Sprint wireless card to adapt to the Mac OS. I forked over $70 plus $125 for Windows XP Home. I told myself $200 is a whole lot better than buying another PC laptop. Everything went fine for several months. Then it didn't. After about 4 months, Parallels stopped working. It was either freeze constantly or crash. Other reviewers have called it "the blue screen of death," and that's exactly the best way to describe it. I had to constantly reset the program. Nothing seemed to reduce the frequency of it stalling. I had to uninstall and re-install it only to repeat this feature every two (2) weeks. With it now being out-of-warranty, it now would have cost me more to talk on the phone with a rep for two hours than it cost me to buy the product. By email, it was on average a three day wait for a response. In the meantime, I bought CrossOver and used it for my Word, and Excel projects--it was (is) considerably slower but it got the job done.

I uninstalled Parallels for good and sold my copy for a fraction of the cost, but it relieved me of seeing that horrendous program on the icon bar.

Now to Fusion. I downloaded Fusion 1x and immediately after putting all of my Windows software on, including the King-Of-Eating-Up-Valuable-Harddrive Space....Photoshop, the software was up and running without fuss in less than 60 seconds. Until last week, the only way to watch free archival Netflix movies was to have the Windows OS, Fusion allowed me to watch literally dozens of movies over the course of several weekends as easy as turning on the tv. Because I bought Fusion within a period a few weeks before they introduced Fusion2, I upgraded at no extra cost.

Speed, reliability and Fusion is actually $15 cheaper, new, than Parallels if you pick it up here. It is now the same amount of time that I've had Fusion when Parallels started to malfunction and deteriorate. It has never had even a minor glitch.

Fusion is by far the superior program to Parallels, if you want to have access to Windows on your Mac.

5 out of 5 stars

Windows Under Glass November 21, 2008
Eric D. Knapp (New Hampshire, USA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

Overview:

App Performance: A+
VM states suspend and resume seamlessly and quickly.

Windows Performance:A+
The windows users in my office are using fairly new PCs and laptops, but with crappy graphics cards. My Macbook Pro (early 2007 version) runs windows "faster" than any version of windows in the office. Is it really faster? There's no way to know without running benchmarks, but it seems faster, and that's something.

Interface: A -
Accessibility to Windows and Windows apps is simple, as are installation and configuration utilities. Windows apps are still bound to a single screen when using spaces - even in 'unity' mode. This is a major gripe I have with VMs in general, as I use multiple work spaces. For those who use a single screen, or who run the VM in a dedicate screen 'space', this isn't a problem. It keeps me out of 'unity' mode and in full screen though.

Mac/PC sharing: A
Your home folder on your Mac shows up as an attached drive (Z:), making navigation to mac directories and files simple and easy (and fast!)

Networking: A+
Fast networking, with setup so easy I almost forgot to review it :-)
Overall: A+

Details:

I'm a long-time Windows-on-Mac user, starting back in the day of Virtual PC, and most recently using Parallels (I currently use Parallels v3.0). I want to start this review by saying that, for many casual PC users looking to run Windows on a Mac, there probably isn't a need -- most everything I do day to day (at work and home) can be done on either OS, and if you own mac hardware, you'll be happier running Mac apps as well. UNLESS you have that "one application" that isn't supported natively.

In my office, we:
1. use Microsoft exchange for email and scheduling, and so I needed to run Windows
2. use one of those large printer/copier/scanner/collating/faxing monstrosities, and it lacks a working mac driver

Of course, there's a slew of word and powerpoint files to deal with as well, but these can be handled with Office for Mac or OpenOffice. Of course, once running Windows anyway for the two reasons above, I prefer to use native Office apps, because that way I'm 100% the files will be compatible (and plus, I end up having to open them on the Windows side to print them anyway).

My initial impressions of VMware Fusion 2 were very positive. It was easy to install, and the interface is very clean. While it's not 100% fair to compare VMware Fusion 2 to the older version of Parallels 3.0 in terms of performance, it is fair to compare things like interface and usability -- and in these areas, VMware wins, in my opinion. I'll give the blanket caveat up front: Parallels may have fixed some of these things in newer versions ... I'll try to get a copy of Parallels v4.0 and do a follow-up review.

VMware's 'unity' puts windows apps side by side with Mac apps (much like Parallel's 'Coherence'). When in 'unity' mode, you have the option to show the windows task bar, which plunks the ugly windows bar behind the Mac's dock. My dock fills the center 70% of my screen, so the Start Menu and the goofy windows tool tray are nice and visible on the far-left and far-right of the screen. However, because I use virtual screens (Mac's "spaces" feature), and because VMware is bound to one of those screens, I run in full-screen mode -- if I have to switch spaces to get to my PC apps anyway, I don't want the ugly conflict between taskbar & dock.

Networking was so clean I almost forgot to include it in this review: it just worked, piggy-backing my Mac's network connections without requiring any action on my part. Digging in, it offers direct network connections as well as private networking (the PC is only available to the Mac). Nice options, but what's even nicer is I didn't even notice they were there.

Performance is amazing for a VM ... even before enabling access to both processors and boosting the default 512MB of memory to 1GB. The only slow-down on the Mac side occurs during a windows boot (or re-boot as is more often the case) ... otherwise, Windows can sit, used or ignored, running on the mac without any noticeable performance degradation to Mac apps.

5 out of 5 stars

This is a GREAT product... November 3, 2008
Dusty Williams (Arizona, USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Over the past two weeks, I have been testing the VMware Fusion 2 product. Wow, I have to admit that I am seriously impressed with this software package. It truly makes using Windows a seamless experience that is truly enjoyable! Here is what's so great about Fusion 2:

1) It makes installing Windows a fun and "fearless" experience.

In the past, I have always used Apple's Bootcamp (a competing product) to run Windows on my Macbook Pro (2.4 GHz with 4 GB of RAM). Only problem is that Apple's Bootcamp program can be a "little confusing" to use -- and when I first went to install Windows on my new Mac, I apparently didn't read the technical installation manually as carefully as I should of, and accidentally wound up wiping out my machine to the point that it wouldn't start. Oh oh... Not good! ;-) I eventually got it back up and running, with Windows installed on it, but it really wasn't the most user-friendly way of installing Windows on my Mac!

However, with the introduction of VMware's Fusion 2, the process of installing Windows just became a real snap! When I first started the program, it asked me if I would like to install Windows on my computer. I said yes and it prompted me to insert my Windows installation disc into the drive. The moment that I did this, it took control over the installation and after a bit, I have Windows freshly installed on my computer! (Also, for those of you who want to use your Bootcamp partition, they give you the option of simply using it, or even migrating it directly to your Mac, as a virtual drive -- which helps to free up tons of space on your drive!) It works seamlessly...

2) Run both Windows and Mac applications together at once!

This is one seriously cool feature of VMware Fusion 2. Since Windows is running virtually on your machine, it means that you can unify both your Microsoft Office applications and your Mac programs together as one powerful software suite. Fusion 2 comes with a feature called "Unify" that allows me to start up my Mac contacts and Microsoft Excel at the same time. I can exchange information between these programs simply by using "copy and paste"! Also, unlike Apple's Bootcamp software, I don't have to reboot my system every time that I want to use a program from the other OS. This makes both me and my Mac more productive!

3) Run your favorite PC games on the Mac!

If you're like me, you probably enjoy a little break here and then -- and that means playing a computer game, once in a while. ;-) Best of all, with Fusion 2, you can enjoy a wide selection of PC games on your Mac, as if they were designed for it.

4) Excellent Hardware Support

Out of all of the virtualization that I have played with over the years, Fusion 2 (by far) is years ahead of the competition. They have written plug-ins for your operating systems that enable full hardware support, such as iSight cameras, USB drives and the ability to print over the network. These are very welcomed features in my mind that place this software package above the competition. This helps to make running Windows (and Linux) a vastly superior option.

THE DISADVANTAGES:
Honestly, it's kind of hard to find very many with this program, as it seems that the developers took the time needed to develop a well-tested application. However, I did find a few, minor issues that you will want to be aware of:

- Product Deactivation for Bootcamp users

If you already have Windows installed and running on your computer, Fusion 2 gives you the ability to run it virtually. When I ran Windows XP virtually for the first time, Windows immediately deactivated both the operating system and my copy of Microsoft Office. Also, Adobe Creative Suite CS2 immediately deactivated too, which was not good. To fix this, I had to reactivate my products, which means that you may have to spend some time on the phone waiting for customer service to give you permission to re-use your software again.

- There seems to be an issue with Time Machine. I have a USB hard drive connected to my Macbook Pro and while it's connected, it actually prevents Windows XP from being able to successfully boot. To fix this problem, simply disconnect the drive (during the booting process) and everything will work fine!

- Out of two weeks of heavy usage, I experienced only one minor crash. VMware Fusion 2 handled it beautifully and no data was lost.

IN SUMMARY:
This is one AWESOME product that I highly recommend. Don't waste your time with Apple's Bootcamp -- make the switch of being able to truly enjoy your mac the way you want. Yes, nowadays, who says you can't have it all... ;-)

5 out of 5 stars

A huge fan October 16, 2008
Rick Lobrecht (Pearland, TX United States)
15 out of 19 found this review helpful

I've been using Fusion for a while, but Amazon did send me a copy for free as part of their Vine program.

I've been using VMWare on and off for almost 10 years. In my work environment, I've used VMWare Workstation, Server, and Player mostly in a software development and testing environment.

In my home network, I used VMWare server for a while, hosting various Linux and Windows "servers."

Earlier this year, I bought my first Mac. I knew it was the right choice for the things I use a computer for personally, but I did have a few challenges. I use iLiumsoft's eWallet, which there isn't a Mac version for (at least not yet.) I also use Exchange for my personal email, and Entourage is no Outlook. If I wanted a complete Exchange experience and the ability to access all my passwords on the Mac, I needed to have Windows available, also.

Enter Fusion. At its core, Fusion enables you to run Windows on your Mac computer, at the same time as OSX is running. This is different than Boot Camp. That's right Windows is running right next to your Mac apps. Fusion has a bunch of cool Mac features that I haven't seen in the Windows VMWare products. Unity mode is very cool. In normal mode, your Windows computer lives inside a window, kind of like a remote desktop connection. In Unity mode, the entire Windows environment disappears, and you just have the apps. Fusion 2.0 also brings a bunch of little Mac usability tweaks.

Fusion is a requirement for any Windows to Mac switcher, and I suspect most Mac zealots will find a lot to use it for as well.

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