Software : VMware Fusion 2

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from: Smith Micro Software Inc.

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Binding: CD-ROM
Brand: Smith Micro Software Inc.
EAN: 0717103883675
Format: CD-ROM
Label: Smith Micro Software Inc.
Manufacturer: Smith Micro Software Inc.
Model: VMFM20BX2
Platform: Mac OS X Intel
Publisher: Smith Micro Software Inc.
Release Date: October 05, 2008
Sales Rank: 35
Studio: Smith Micro Software Inc.

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 Exposé 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 Exposé 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

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Works great
Program works great. The instructions are easy to follow. Very easy to switch between OS X and Windows. I installed Windows Xp and it runs very well on my mac. The only issue I have it that if I insert a CD/DVD into Windows it won't always appear on my mac's desktop until i disable the cd-rom drive in vmware.

Rating:

- Seamless Integration
This is a truly remarkable product; I have used almost every virtualization product in existence (Virtualbox, VMWare Server/Workstation, Xen, QEMU, KVM...) and none have come close to being as fulfilling and highly integrated as this one, not even the original VMWare products on Windows works this well.

Here is a typical user story:
1) Use bootcamp in OS X to prepare space for a second OS.
2) Install the second OS (I use Windows Vista on a MacBook AIR).
3) Start VMWare in OS X and it will discover your new OS, install guest drivers and provide seamless integration (copy/paste, hibernation, run Windows programs from Mac, share files...).

The speed is good, I have no issue with running multiple programs in OS X and Vista all at once on my Air (fx. Oracle 11 inside Windows Vista). However what I find most amazing is the level of integration; when I close the lid on my MacBook it hibernates all running OSs. I can even assign windows programs to be started when I click a file in OS X.

To sum up this is one of the best software experiences I have had in many years, easily comparable to the pleasures of other famous Mac software (IPhoto, ITunes, QuickSilver..). Get it now.

Rating:

- Smooth and silky
Have used this for 11 months seamlessly. I love the way you can have PC applications on your Mac dock. One click and you open Windows and the application (example Word). The only problems I have had are with Windows -- the usual slowdowns and crashes. Nothing different from when I had a PC.
Fusion is priced well, too. My only beef is the commitment to partitioning your hard drive. As far as I can tell, you cannot undo this without reformatting your hard drive.

Rating:

- Exercise in Frustration
I have a new (refurbished) Macbook Pro 2.4ghz/4GB RAM.

All my legacy files and software are Windows so I need to run a WinXP Pro VM on my Mac to continue to use them.

One reason I bought a Mac was to reduce the level of frustration achieved using Wintel for 9 years.

Grrrr.

Fusion was a very promising piece of software which I bought it for half-price to boot almost 30 days ago. I know this because my 30 days of free support is about to expire and I've been getting my money's worth, in quantity if not quality. I am worried because almost (literally) every time I boot it up, I encounter yet another problem. The on-line support is generally OK, never exceptional and sometimes downright lousy. Some of the support folk are truly diligent, I believe. They are likely located in India, based on names and time of day of the responses. This is not a bad thing necessarily as they are working on issues while I am sleeping and I can wake up to a reply.

Some problems:
1. Virtual disks gobbling up the entire physical disk for no reason;
2. Windows Briefcases not handled well and sometimes their use in a way I've done for years on Wintel is prevented. It is a bug. I was told -- it's the OS, not our problem. More than once.
3. cannot right click to get certain context menus, either by a mouse right click or a two-finger-tap on touchpad.
4. one-time strange interaction with Seagate Drive Manager s/w
5. the use of Windows Search to catalogue the virtual drive was hit and miss.
6. newest one is keyboard shortcuts that don't work at all.

Some user error here? Probably. I like documentation, when available. (Don't get me started on Mac docs!)

All in all, there are a bunch of small, annoying bugs that prevent the s/w from actually working as expected. Which is too bad because it is great being able to bounce between Mac and Windows apps, backup my data to both MacOS and NTFS partitions (from the like OS).

If things don't improve soon, I'm inclined to look at either Parallels ($) or VirtualBox (free).

Are these issues with OS X 10.5.6 which I installed a week or two ago? Maybe some, but likely not all.

I encourage you to see what VirtualBox has to too offer first and then maybe parallels before choosing Fusion. I have no experience with either.

Rating:

- Fusion Just Works!
I never used Parallels so I'm not going to make a comparison between the two, besides, there are plenty of good comparison recommendations between them.

As it is in most every company, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint slide shows abound and since the Mac is becoming fairly common in the workplace, it only stands to reason that you have seamless interoperability between the two. One of the things I noticed about office apps running natively on the Mac, even though they say they "export" or "save as" versions of Windows applications, they don't exactly make the cut. I work a lot in PowerPoint and Excel and often have to share slides or spreadsheets with others to collaborate on projects and presentations. The difficulty I had with doing this was that the version I sent them never seemed to look as good as it did when I was finished with it. I'd get all sorts of complaints from those working with me that my Mac just screwed things up.

I decided to try Fusion, load WIndows on it and just work with it for a bit. I liked it so much I ended up buying it but not only that, I found I was using it every day for other things too.

The latest version of Fusion works really well. Windows seems to run flawlessly (as flawlessly as any Microsoft product can) and allows me to do the bulk of my work on my Mac using Keynote or Pages then work on my spreadsheets through Fusion, Windows and Excel. When I finish my presentation, I go to Windows, open it in PowerPoint and tweak it for my coworkers use. This helps ensure they don't have to make any major changes.

One thing I've noticed is that Excel for Mac just runs like a slug on sandpaper, very slow and a real hassle not to mention it doesn't have all the capabilities I need so running Excel through Fusion with Windows isn't an option.

Recommendations:
I highly recommend anyone considering Fusion to max out your RAM on your machine. All Mac's will thank you anyway but Fusion works must better the more memory you have to throw at it. I also recommend you create a fresh install then take a snapshot of the image and burn that to a DVD for safe keeping. As with any Windows install, after a little while, you'll want to revert back to the fresh install at some point. Windows is like an air filter in your home, after a while, you just need to put another one in because it gets so clogged up with junk it doesn't work as well as it should and only causes problems.

If you're going to run Fusion, be sure you have the latest updates. As with any Windows computer, you need to reboot it frequently. Even though you're running a Mac which doesn't need to be rebooted as often, its still a virtual Windows Computer and will still need to be rebooted at least once a day.

Bottom line, this is a great product, works really well and has a great support team behind it.


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