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VMware Fusion 3 - The Answer to our Prayers?
wirespeed
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Full article here at Ars Technica, but highlights include:
More here, with screenshots spoilered below:
- Snow Leopard Support (no word on whether/how it works in Leopard that I've seen)
- Native 64-bit Application (take that Adobe!)
- Support for Windows 7
- Support for Aero in Windows 7
- Optimization for XP and Windows 7 (take that Vista!)
- OpenGL 2.1 and DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3 aka GAMING SUPPORT
- Better Migration Assistant for existing PCs
- Better Unity integration of Windows into your Mac (if you're in to that)
More here, with screenshots spoilered below:
Windows 7
Migration Assistant
Left 4 Dead being played in a Window
Migration Assistant
Left 4 Dead being played in a Window
wirespeed on
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The price a few weeks back was $30. So I would have saved $10. Oh well.
I just ran VMWare Fusion and it noticed an update was available (to 2.0.6).. notice what it says in the release notes:
VMWare Fusion 3 not needed, although VMWare Fusion is easily the best VM software available on the mac by light years.
I'm downloading this update as fast as I can, always wanted to play around in OSX in a VM.
EDIT: Ah, nuts.. server. I always miss that.
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
I also did a fair bit of research before deciding to go with Fusion over Parallels, and everything I read said that at present, VMware's product was ahead of Parallels in terms of performance.
That said, I'm glad there's competition between the products, because it makes them both better, and I'm glad Parallels works better for whatever you.
I only have 2 GB (older Macbook Pro, only came with 1, wish to god I'd upgraded it to 3 now). So I don't give VM's any more than 512, and so I understand if the VM wants to page a lot but then everything in OS X becomes unbearably slow and the whole thing gets pretty infuriating.
Like, when a I run a 512MB VM of some ancient Linux or Windows that only needs that much in VMWare Fusion, OS X starts to feel like it only has 512 MB itself and I'm wondering, "where did the other 1 GB go?"
Honestly I mainly used VMWare Fusion to avoid booting into Windows XP to run Visual Studio, so of course VS is a huge hog. I don't do this any more because VMWareTools really fucked up Boot Camp (as does ParallelsTools), so I don't use either product all that much.
Honestly I have such an easy time getting into page city with 2 GB even without running a VM it's depressing.
There is a setting in VMware's general preferences where you can specify if you want it to 'Optimize for virtual machine disk performance' or 'Optimize for Mac OS application performance' if you ever want to give it another go (though unlikely based on your experiences).
Anyway, it's possible the new version will make things better for you as it promises to be less CPU/Memory intensive, so if they offer a trial it might be worth a shot.
Edit: Just bit the bullet and ordered a 2 GB RAM module to replace the 1 GB chip I already added. Should have just maxed in in the first place, tired of bitching about this. I have to use Eclipse all the time for my job and it's an absolutely insane RAM hog.