Team Fusion

Rob Griffiths at Macworld recently posted a first look at VMware Fusion 3. It covers a great many of the new and exciting features in VMware Fusion 3 and is a great overall introduction to the new release.

One of the great things Rob covers are the overall improvements in 3D graphics in VMware Fusion, especially for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users. He was able to play Flight Simulator X in a virtual machine on the Mac for the first time with VMware Fusion 3 and Windows 7 and this was on a 2008 iMac with ATI Radeon 2600 while running a full screen screen capture of the game with ScreenFlow at the same time. Check out the video below:

The First Look  of VMware Fusion 3 also covers some of the great details on why Unity is much better in VMware Fusion 3, other user interface improvements, and a lot of the other small touches that make VMware Fusion 3 better than ever.

Here are Rob’s closing thoughts on his First Look at VMware Fusion

 

Overall, I’ve been impressed with VMware Fusion 3’s performance during my time with it. Creating new virtual machines was simple, performance was good even on a mid-range iMac, and the ability to use Aero effects and run 3D games in the virtual machine was impressive. The new Virtual Machine Library screen eases the management of multiple virtual machines, and the built-in update tool will make it easy to keep up to date with future releases.

I highly recommend getting over to Macworld and checking out their First Look on VMware Fusion 3 for more details.

Yesterday, I let you know that that we had hit some snags in getting VMware Fusion 3 into your hands.

I want to apologize again for the poor experience many of you had trying to purchase VMware Fusion 3 or a VMware Fusion 3 upgrade yesterday. Bottom line, we saw even more demand than anticipated and the VMware upgrade portal had problems keeping up with the demand!

The VMware team has been working around the clock to troubleshoot and address the issues you encountered yesterday. We made a number of key changes to resolve the problems around purchasing and upgrading to VMware Fusion 3 and the upgrade portal has been improved to resolve the key issues.

Improved Upgrade Portal Open for Business

VMware Fusion 3 Upgrades and VMware Fusion 3 Academic Upgrades Available for Purchase

Upgrades from previous versions of VMware Fusion to VMware Fusion 3 cost only $39.99 and they are available today from the VMware Online Store.  

For qualified students and teachers, VMware Fusion 3 Academic Upgrades are priced at $19.99 and they are available from the VMware Academic Store.

Addressing Questions and Fixing The Remaining Issues

I bought VMware Fusion 2 from the VMware Online Store and was promised a free upgrade…

I sincerely apologize for the delay in getting you your free upgrades in time for the launch. We planned to deliver your free upgrades yesterday, but we encountered some problems that delayed this temporarily. We are resolving the issues and it is currently our plan to send out e-mail notifications with free upgrade fulfillment information by the end of the week. 
  
In the meantime, please download the VMware Fusion 3 trial to get up and running today. Once you receive your VMware Fusion 3 free upgrade fulfillment e-mail, you will just need to retrieve your final VMware Fusion 3 license and enter it into your already installed VMware Fusion 3 software.

What if I bought VMware Fusion 2 at a retailer or other online store in October, how do I get my free downloadable upgrade?

If you bought VMware Fusion 2 from a retail or other online store, you need to go to the VMware Fusion Technology Guarantee website, fill out the online form, and mail in or fax your proof of purchase of VMware Fusion 2. Free downloadable VMware Fusion 3 upgrades will take up two weeks to deliver after receiving a valid proof of purchase.

In the meantime, please download the VMware Fusion 3 trial to get up and running today. Once you receive your VMware Fusion 3 free upgrade fulfillment e-mail, you will just need to retrieve your final VMware Fusion 3 license and enter it into your already installed VMware Fusion 3 software.

I purchased an upgrade but did not receive an e-mail with my VMware Fusion 3 serial number…

Go to the VMware License Portal to retrieve your VMware Fusion 3 serial number.

1. Log into the VMware License Portal with your VMware account to retrieve your VMware Fusion 3 serial number/activation key.
2. If you are already running a trial of VMware Fusion 3, you can enter your activation key/serial number by choosing “License” from the “VMware Fusion” menu in VMware Fusion 3.
3. Otherwise, Download VMware Fusion 3. Install VMware Fusion 3 and enter your new license key during installation and you're all set.

I purchased an upgrade but my e-mail didn’t include a VMware Fusion 3 serial number…

We have fixed this issue for most customers that hit this problem and you can go to the VMware License Portal to retrieve your VMware Fusion 3 serial number.

1. Log into the VMware License Portal with your VMware account to retrieve your VMware Fusion 3 serial number/activation key.
2. If you are already running a trial of VMware Fusion 3, you can enter your activation key/serial number by choosing “License” from the “VMware Fusion” menu in VMware Fusion 3.
3. Otherwise, Download VMware Fusion 3. Install VMware Fusion 3 and enter your new license key during installation and you're all set.

We have about 100 more customers left with this problem and we expect to finish those fixes by mid day tomorrow. If you are one of these customers, you should be able to retrieve your VMware Fusion 3 upgrade license from the VMware License Portal tomorrow afternoon.

What if I bought VMware Fusion 2 with the 12-month Subscription option?

If you have an active subscription only contract (purchased 12 months ago or less), you receive a free downloadable VMware Fusion 3 upgrade. Your VMware accounts have been updated with your new VMware Fusion 3 license and e-mail notifications are being sent out this evening.

You can retrieve your VMware Fusion 3 licenses from the VMware License Portal.

1. Log into the VMware License Portal with your VMware account to retrieve your VMware Fusion 3 serial number/activation key.
2. If you are already running a trial of VMware Fusion 3, you can enter your activation key/serial number by choosing “License” from the “VMware Fusion” menu in VMware Fusion 3. 
3. Otherwise, Download VMware Fusion 3. Install VMware Fusion 3 and enter your new license key during installation and you're all set.

My business bought VMware Fusion 2 with the Site Support, when do I get the upgrade?

If you have an active Site Support contract (purchased 12 months ago or less), you receive a free downloadable VMware Fusion 3 upgrade for your covered licenses. Your VMware account has been updated with your new VMware Fusion 3 licenses and e-mail notifications are being sent out this evening to retrieve your VMware Fusion 3 licenses.

You can retrieve your VMware Fusion 3 licenses from the VMware License Portal.

1. Log into the VMware License Portal with your VMware account to retrieve your VMware Fusion 3 serial number/activation key.
2. If you are already running a trial of VMware Fusion 3, you can enter your activation key/serial number by choosing “License” from the “VMware Fusion” menu in VMware Fusion 3. 
3. Otherwise, Download VMware Fusion 3. Install VMware Fusion 3 and enter your new license key during installation and you're all set.

Thanks again for your patience and ongoing support

We worked hard to resolve the problems so you can get VMware Fusion 3 now. We are sorry for any issues you may have encountered.

We hope you enjoy VMware Fusion 3 as much as we enjoyed creating it!

Pat Lee

Director, Personal Desktop Products

VMware

IMPORTANT NOTE: These issues mentioned in this blog post have already been resolved and they were addressed on Wednesday October 28th. See Improved VMware Fusion Portal Now Open for Business for more details.

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First off, I want to thank our users for the flood of excitement for VMware Fusion 3.  Because we’ve seen even more demand than anticipated, the VMware Fusion upgrade portal is having problems keeping up with the demand! 

While we have already transacted thousands of upgrades today and many people are able to get the product, I apologize immensely to those of you who are anxious to get the product immediately and are running into issues.

I want to reassure you that we are working on this urgently and expect to be back in action soon.

In the mean time, I want to get you up and running with VMware Fusion 3 while we resolve the issues many of you are encountering.

1. Click here to download the VMware Fusion 3 software
2. Use the following 30 trial license key to get you up and running: JN28P-7UJ8M-H8K33-0202P-9EPH4

I hope this helps you get up and running while we get our VMware Fusion upgrade portal back in order.

If you have questions about your upgrade, subscription, or technology guarantee, please see our original post, here.

Stay tuned to the Team Fusion blog and Twitter feed for the latest updates.

Thanks for your patience and ongoing support.

Pat Lee

Director, Personal Desktop Products

VMware

We are pleased to announce that VMware Fusion 3, the best way to run Windows on the Mac, is now available.

VMware Fusion 3 makes it easier and faster than ever to run Mac and Windows applications side-by-side without rebooting. VMware Fusion 3 is available in a single, all-inclusive edition that includes everything you need to switch to the Mac for just $79.99.

Buy VMware Fusion 3 NOW!

VMware Fusion 3 is now available at the VMware Online Store, the Apple Online Store® (apple.com), Apple Retail Stores, Amazon.com, and other select US resellers starting today.

I want to upgrade to VMware Fusion 3 NOW…

Upgrades from previous versions of VMware Fusion to VMware Fusion 3 cost only $39.99 and are available exclusively from the VMware Online Store, so you can download and start using VMware Fusion 3 immediately!

When will VMware Fusion 3 be available at online resellers and retail stores in Europe or Asia?

VMware Fusion 3 will be available at authorized retail and online stores in Europe and Asia starting Tuesday, November 4th.

Is there special academic/student pricing for VMware Fusion 3?

For qualified students and teachers, VMware has academic pricing that is available from the VMware Academic Store, so you can download and start using VMware Fusion 3 immediately at an even lower cost!

What if I bought VMware Fusion 2 recently?

Customers who purchase VMware Fusion 2 from October 1, 2009 through end of November qualify for a free downloadable upgrade to VMware Fusion 3.

• If you bought VMware Fusion 2 from the VMware Online Store from October 1st through October 26th, there is nothing for you to do and you will receive a free downloadable VMware Fusion 3 upgrade by e-mail in the next week.
• If you bought VMware Fusion 2 from a retail or other online store, you need to go to the VMware Fusion Technology Guarantee website, fill out the online form, and mail in or fax your proof of purchase of VMware Fusion 2. Free downloadable VMware Fusion 3 upgrades will take up two weeks to deliver after receiving a valid proof of purchase.

What if I bought VMware Fusion 2 with the 12-month Subscription option?

If you have an active subscription only contract (purchased 12 months ago or less), you will receive a free downloadable VMware Fusion 3 upgrade by e-mail in the next week.

My business bought VMware Fusion 2 with the Site Support?

If you have an active Site Support contract (purchased 12 months ago or less), you will receive a free downloadable VMware Fusion 3 upgrade for your covered licenses by e-mail in the next week.

What’s new in VMware Fusion 3?

VMware Fusion 3 has over 50 new features and enhancements including:

• Easiest, Fastest Way To Switch To The Mac. With the new built-in Migration Assistant for Windows, VMware Fusion 3 makes it easy for users to bring their entire PC to their Mac in a few easy steps – wirelessly or with a simple Ethernet or FireWire cable – allowing customers to protect investments in existing Windows software, and to keep using the programs they still need ! More important, VMware Fusion 3 is more than two times faster than other “Switch to Mac” solutions without the 20% price premium of dedicated “Switch to Mac” solutions.

Leverage Apple’s Bonjour for the most Mac like way to migrate your PC to the Mac

• Ultimate Windows 7 Experience. VMware Fusion 3 is the FIRST virtualization product for the Mac to provide the full Windows 7 experience, side-by-side with your Mac, complete with Windows Aero and Flip 3D. Run 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7 -- it is your choice.

Only VMware Fusion 3 Supports Windows Aero with Flip 3D

• Optimized for Snow Leopard. VMware Fusion 3 leverages Mac OS X Snow Leopard’s advanced architecture with a new 64-bit core engine and native support for the 64-bit kernel to deliver an even better Windows on Mac experience.

CPU usage running Windows Live Writer on Windows 7 x64 while writing this blog post

• Best-in-Class 3D Graphics. VMware was the first to provide virtual 3D graphics and is the first to support Windows Aero in a virtual machine on the Mac. VMware Fusion 3 is also first to support DirectX 9 Shader Model 3.0 3D graphics and now adds support for OpenGL 2.1 for Windows virtual machines to enable more Windows applications and games.

Playing Left 4 Dead in a Windows 7 VM!

• Run Windows Apps, The Mac Way. VMware Fusion has been designed from the beginning to make it easy to run Windows apps like Mac apps. VMware Fusion 3 makes it even better with the “Always On” Applications Menu that banishes the Windows Start menu from your Mac and let’s you find and launch Windows apps like Mac apps, even when VMware Fusion is not running. Cycle through open Windows apps with “ command ` ”, quit individual Windows applications with “command q”, and use Dock Exposé with Windows apps.

Kick the Windows Start Menu to the curb with the new “Always On” Application Menu  

• Maximum Performance. Finely Tuned. Building on the proven reliability and performance of VMware Fusion 2, the new 64-bit native core engine and 4-way multi-core SMP make VMware Fusion 3 perform even better especially on the Nehalem-based Mac Pro and the new iMacs, especially on the new iMac and Mac Pros. In addition, many smaller refinements increase overall performance from better disk and graphics performance on Snow Leopard, improved 2D interactive performance, faster scrolling in Windows applications, faster to enter Unity view, improved application launch times, up to 2X faster resume time for a suspended virtual machine, and much more. VMware Fusion 3 is finely tuned to make Windows run even better than before on the Mac.

We hope you enjoy VMware Fusion 3!

Team Fusion has been working long hours for almost a year to bring you VMware Fusion 3 and we hope you enjoy it!

Craig Grannell on TechRadar covers the 10 essential OS X applications for pro web developers and we are happy that VMware Fusion made this impressive list of essential applications for the web developer.

The Mac has long been the platform choice of web developers and there are a lot of great tools on the Mac that make it the better choice.

In the past, Mac based web developers had to have a PC on their desk to test their apps as well. With VMware Fusion, they can get rid of the extra PC hardware and test all their web apps on the Mac they love.

Coda and BBEdit are the top two essential apps for pro web developers and VMware Fusion plugs into both of them, so you can preview your designs in any Windows web browser right on your Mac.

In fact, Panic has a great tutorial on how to use VMware Fusion with Coda to preview designs in Internet Explorer on your Mac.

Why is VMware Fusion the right choice for web developers? According to TechRadar “…Fusion currently betters Parallels Desktop and VirtualBox. Robustness, usability and strong performance ensure Fusion's an ideal choice for running Windows in a window on your Mac.”

If you are a pro web developer on the Mac that is not running VMware Fusion, we highly recommend you try it today and see how well it incorporates in your workflow and makes testing your designs easier than ever.

Just a reminder, if you buy VMware Fusion 2 today, you qualify for a free upgrade to VMware Fusion 3 when it comes out on October 27th.

We are pleased to announce our latest maintenance release of VMware Fusion 2. VMware Fusion 2.0.6 is a free update for all VMware Fusion 1.x and VMware Fusion 2.x users. You can download the bits here.

VMware Fusion 2.0.6 fixes multiple issues when running VMware Fusion 2.0.x on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (32-bit kernel mode), including:

• Mouse losing focus on Snow Leopard hosts
• Driverless printing fails after an upgrade install of Leopard or Snow Leopard Software Update
• VMware Fusion 2 claims to be unlicensed after upgrading to Snow Leopard
• Slow 3D graphics on Macs with NVIDIA graphics cards running Snow Leopard
  

And much more! Read the Release Notes for more details.

Enjoy the new bits!

VMware Online Store - One Day Bloggers Sale

If you don't already have VMware Fusion 2, or have been thinking about getting a copy for a friend or family member, get it today for 35% off at the VMware online store.

Apply discount code “FUSIONROCKS” at checkout.  Offer ends at Midnight PT on October 1.  Buy now

VMware Online Store 3-Day Sale

If you don't already have VMware Fusion, or have been thinking about getting a copy for a friend or family member, now may be a good time.  The VMware online store is hosting a 3-day sale for 40% off VMware Fusion 2 (and VMware Workstation).

Apply discount code “DESKTOPSALE” at checkout.  | vmware.com/go/buyfusion | Offer ends 9/10.

Many VMware Fusion users have been wondering how VMware Fusion 2.0.5 fares on Snow Leopard, and we’re proud to report that VMware Fusion 2.0.5 now offers experimental support for the Snow Leopard when running the default 32-bit kernel!

Of course, we kept up with the pre-release seeds of 10.6 and done a great deal of testing of VMware Fusion 2.0.5 and found that it worked well on the default Snow Leopard install (the 32-bit kernel which runs both 32-bit and 64-bit applications). However, there was always the minor chance that something could change before the final version of Snow Leopard.

Our initial testing of VMware Fusion 2.0.5 with the final release of Snow Leopard has gone very well, but we are still running our full suite of tests on the final Snow Leopard release just to be sure.

Just so you know, I’m writing this blog post in Windows XP virtual machine on an iMac running VMware Fusion 2.0.5 on Snow Leopard and it works great.

If you are using an older version of VMware Fusion, download the FREE upgrade to VMware Fusion 2.0.5 in order to run your virtual machines on Snow Leopard

UPDATED : So, what is the story with 64-bit Snow Leopard?

Apple is promoting the 64-bit transition in Snow Leopard now that all Apple applications included with Snow Leopard, like Calculator, to Finder, and Windows Server are ported to 64-bit. According to Apple, all included Apple applications are now 64-bit for higher performance, but the default kernel for every Mac except the Xserve is the 32-bit kernel. So, even though you are running the 32-bit kernel by default, the rest of Mac OS X Snow Leopard is running in 64-bit mode for better performance.

VMware Fusion 2.0.5 offers experimental support for the default install of Snow Leopard, which runs both 32-bit applications and the new faster 64-bit applications on the default 32-bit kernel.

In addition to the default Snow Leopard install, which is the 32-bit kernel with support for 32-bit and 64-bit applications, Snow Leopard now offers a 64-bit kernel option that is available by default for Snow Leopard Server on 2008 and 2009 Xserves. The 64-bit kernel can be enabled optionally on a number of 2008, 2009 Macs

However, VMware Fusion 2.0.5 is NOT compatible with the optional 64-bit kernel of Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server.  For most users, this will not be a problem, as the 64-bit kernel of Snow Leopard only starts up by default only for Snow Leopard Server on 2008 and 2009 Xserves.

The transition to the 64-bit kernel of Snow Leopard is a major undertaking and something that we are taking seriously as we plan future products. If you are interested in beta testing future versions of VMware Fusion, click here to sign up.

Checking if Snow Leopard is running the 32-bit or 64-bit kernel

If you are not sure which version of Snow Leopard you are running, it’s really easy to check:

1) Select About this Mac from the Apple menu

2) Click on More Info to open System Profiler

3) Click on Software and check the “64-bit Kernel and Extensions” option. If you are running the 64-bit Kernel, it will say “Yes”, if you are running the 32-bit Kernel it will say “No”.

How to Switch from 64-bit to 32-bit Snow Leopard

If you found that your computer is running the 64-bit version of Snow Leopard and you need to run your virtual machines, it’s really easy to switch it to the 32-bit kernel. Simply restart your computer holding down the “3” and “2” keys on the keyboard

Enjoy VMware Fusion 2.0.5 on Snow Leopard

Apple has worked hard on this revolutionary software, and we know many of you have been waiting eagerly for Snow Leopard (I've personally been waiting for the new Easy Text Selection feature in Preview to make highlighting text in PDF’s much easier).  We always want our customers to be able to use the newest software available, so we are pleased VMware Fusion 2.0.5 works well (though still experimental support for now) on Snow Leopard.

If you don’t have VMware Fusion yet, the VMware online store is having a limited time “10% Off” sale on VMware Fusion 2.  Save 10% instantly when you buy VMware Fusion today – offer expires 8/31/09!

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InformationWeek recently published their list of “Top 19 Mac Apps For Tight Budgets” and VMware Fusion was chosen app to run Windows on the Mac.

Mitch Wagner summarizes why Mac users on a tight budget need VMware Fusion.

The most common use is to run Windows and get access to proprietary Windows apps that are not available for the Mac … As if that's not cool enough, Fusion will let you do a few more things: You can share data between the "guest operating system" and the Mac. You can set some Windows apps to be the default app for specific kinds of documents. And you can run Windows apps in their own, separate windows on the Mac, so they look more like native Mac apps.

In addition to VMware Fusion, there are a lot of other great apps on the InformationWeek Top 19 Mac Apps list that I personally use daily including TextWrangler, Adium, Evernote, Things, and Tweetie. So, I highly recommend you check out the InformationWeek Top 19 Mac Apps list to find some great apps you may not be using today but should check out.

If you aren’t already using VMware Fusion, download a 30-day trial and see why VMware Fusion is the top app for running Windows on a tight budget.