VMTN Blog

There has been a lot of buzz flying around Windows 7 since its public beta release earlier this year. Team Fusion released a Practical Guide to Windows 7 on Mac with VMware Fusion when the Windows 7 public beta was released earlier and lots of users took advantage of the opportunity to check out the forthcoming version of Windows.

In fact, I have been running my day to day work life out of a Windows 7 Public Beta VM using Mirrored Folders and Shared Applications since the beta was released and it has been working really well with a couple of known caveats that we mentioned at the time.

Today, Microsoft released a public release candidate of Windows 7. We have installed Windows 7 RC on a number of Macs from a first generation MacBook Air to a higher end MacBook Pro and Windows 7 RC is really responsive with the default VMware Fusion settings on all Macs we have tried.

Personally, I am excited to see the improvements in my day to day use of Windows 7 at work. More important, I am excited that the Windows 7 Release Candidate is the easiest way for you to try out Windows on your Mac for FREE (at least until the beta expires). That’s right, you can download Windows 7 Release Candidate through July 1^st and it’s free to use until it expires on June 1, 2010.

While VMware Fusion won’t formally support Windows 7 until it is released later this year, the Windows 7 Release Candidate works really well in VMware Fusion 2.0.4 based on our initial testing.

From our Team Fusion blog: Windows 7 on Mac with VMware Fusion: A Practical Guide

There’s been a lot of buzz flying around about Microsoft’s next big operating system, Windows 7, which just entered public beta.

As our readers know, a great way to start testing out a new operating system is in a virtual machine, where you can see how it works without having to dedicate a whole physical machine. 

Well guess what: this is certainly the case with Windows 7 and VMware Fusion, too.  So we wanted to take the time to share best practices on how to make this happen, with screenshots and video of the process to make it nice and easy for you.

The secret is to use the Easy Install but change the OS from Vista to Windows Server 2008. And in 20 minutes or so ... enjoy.

Addendum: Rich Brambley at VM /ETC seemed to have no trouble installing the Windows 7 beta on VMware Workstation 6.5 by setting Vista as the OS, so not sure which way is best if you're on that platform. Check the VMware Communities for Workstation or Fusion if you're having trouble.

The VMware Fusion team just wrapped up another successful Macworld. I'm sure Pete and Pat will tell us all about it at the Team Fusion blog shortly, but here are just a few recent news items on the state of the virtualization on Mac and Windows on Mac world.

First of all, we're excited to report that NPD ("the leading global provider of consumer and retail market research information") is reporting that VMware Fusion is the #1 selling virtualization software for the Mac, and in October we were at 59% of the market to Parallels 39%, and we were at 53% for the year. Link: Macworld.Ars: VMware Fusion takes #1 retail spot in 2008

Kazanjy and group product manager Pat Lee emphasized that Fusion basically went from a zero percent market share in August of 2007 to 53 percent a little over a year later. "We think the market is coming of age right now," Kazanjy told us. "Though positive reviews from big sites and pundits are still helping us out, positive user reviews are what's taking us to the next level. People really like what they're using."

I'll vouch for the customers speaking for themselves. Over and over on Twitter, I see people asking for advice on which to buy, and the overwhelming advice is to buy Fusion.

Another award I was particularly impressed by was that VMware Fusion was determined to be the #1 most loved software product on Amazon. You can't buy or give away stuff for that kind of rating. Of course, Fusion also got a second consecutive Macworld Editor's Choice Award (Eddy), which ain't too shabby either.

For more on the Fusion state of the union, check out Pat Lee's post from last week: VMware: Team Fusion: As we prepare for Macworld Expo 2009, a look back at 2008....

2008 was an amazing success for the VMware Fusion team thanks to your support. We can't thank the Mac community enough for how you have embraced VMware Fusion to date and we look forward to making 2009 an even better year for Mac users running Windows and other operating systems on their Mac.

And I'm not only blogging about it, I'm a customer too. I use Fusion every day to run Windows on my Mac and it's rock solid and doesn't make my MacBook Pro sweat at all.  Find out more about VMware Fusion today.

(And don't tell the product team I told you this, but even though you just missed the competitive rebate, there are lots of deals and coupon codes out there to pick up a good deal -- just look around. And there is also the 30-day eval to get you started right now. So there's really no excuse if you've been thinking about trying VMware Fusion!)

What We’ll Be Up To

We’ll be demoing VMware Fusion 2 on five demo stations, handing out “My Mac Loves VMware” laptop and bumper stickers, and doing presentations in our theater.

Even better, we’ll have some special guests in our theater.  Every day at 2PM, Joe Kissell from Take Control Publishing, will be presenting tips and tricks from his awesome book “Take Control of VMware Fusion 2”, the quintessential power user’s guide to VMware Fusion 2.

So if you would like to come say hi, whether you’re a curious would-be user, a current customer, press, partner, or so on, our booth is the place to be.  We’ll have something for everyone.

I think Workstation is 25% off with the same code as well.

Link: VMware: Team Fusion: One Day VMware Fusion Madness: 50% off VMware Fusion. Combine with Competitive Rebate.

From 12:01 AM Pacific Time (well, I think it actually might be live right now) on December 1st, 2008 through 11:59 PM, 24 hours later, VMware Fusion will be on sale for 50% off, worldwide.

 

That’s right.  Using the coupon code “CyberMondayDeal” at checkout, you can buy VMware Fusion at half off its typical list price.

 

What’s more, in the United States and Canada, this deal combines with our $30 competitive rebate for Parallels and Virtual PC for Mac users. On top of getting Fusion for half off, you can get $30 back when you prove ownership of a competing product.

 

So yes, you heard that right.

 

People interested in running Windows on the Mac, can do so with Fusion for half price, all day tomorrow.

 

And people interested in switching from Parallels and Virtual PC to VMware Fusion can do so for as little as $9.99.

 

Snapshots are not particular tricky, but they are often misunderstood, on both the hosted and the VI side. (I just had to clean up a huge Fusion snapshot that was really difficult -- I tried to commit my snapshot (merge it back into the base image) by deleting it, but I didn't have enough space left to make the new clean file. Oh well, I didn't need those iMovie files anymore.)

Link: VMware: Team Fusion: Bonus Tip: Snapshots.

People sometimes get confused about how snapshots work and how to use them. While snapshots are incredibly useful for many things, one major misconception is thinking that they are a form of backup - they're not! If a lightning strike totally fries your computer, a snapshot won't help if it's on the same disk (because your snapshot just got fried too). Sure, you'll probably get lucky - if your computer merely shut down uncleanly, your snapshot may still work. You might not even need to go use the snapshot. But this is not a backup, it's gambling.

Team Fusion shoots ... and scores. Link: VMware: Team Fusion: Walt Mossberg: “VMware Fusion is now the better choice for running Windows on the Mac…”.

Having pushed VMware Fusion 2 out into the world a little over two weeks ago, we here on Team Fusion have been waiting with bated breath for the reviews to start showing up.

 

We had a great surprise tonight, when Walt Mossberg, personal technology columnist for the venerable Wall Street Journal posted his review of VMware Fusion 2 with the headline “One Way to Turn a Mac into a PC Just Got Better.” ...

Walt is a very brass tacks reviewer, and is evenhanded in how he tests, praises, and dings various products.  His takeaway was that as of his review, VMware Fusion is the best way to run virtual Windows on the Mac.

 

Our favorite quotes, for the fridge here at the Team Fusion compound? “VMware Fusion is now the better choice for running Windows on a Mac virtually.”  And with respect to our biggest competitor out in the market, “VMware Fusion edges it out as the better product.”

Link: VMware: Team Fusion: Windows Gets Even Better on the Mac with VMware Fusion 2: 100+ New Features, Free Upgrade for Existing Users.

We’re proud to announce that VMware Fusion 2 is now available. ...

VMware Fusion 2, a free, downloadable upgrade for all VMware Fusion 1.x customers, adds over 100 new features and enhancements including:

More Seamless with Unity 2.0: Application Sharing, Link Handling, Mirrored Folders, Driverless Printing, True Multiple Display Support, and Custom Keyboard Mapping.

Safer Windows on Mac experience with AutoProtect automated snapshots and a 12-month complimentary subscription to McAfee VirusScan Plus security software for Windows XP and Vista

More Power with DirectX 9.0c with Shader Model 2 3D graphics, 1080p HD video playback, Multiple Snapshots, 4-way vSMP, and Better Linux Support (Unity & Easy Install)

More Mac-like, More Mac-friendly with all new Welcome Screen, Virtual Machine Library and Virtual Machine Settings, Cover Flow and Quick Look integration, and Apple Help

Finally, Mac OS X Leopard Server now is supported in a virtual machine on Mac hardware

With Desktop Virtualization and Unity, it really doesn't matter what operating system your applications want to run on. Case in point: the new Google Chrome browser, which is only Windows-flavored for the moment. Link: VMware: Team Fusion: Google Chrome for Mac: It’s Already Here, and It’s Smoking Fast.

Safari 3.1.2:

 

 

Firefox for Mac 3.0.1:

 

Google Chrome Beta on VMware Fusion:

What’s even cooler, is that if you wanted to, using VMware Fusion 2’s Application Sharing features (you can watch a demo video here) means that you could make Google Chrome your default browser for *all* web links you click on in your Mac.

Have I mentioned how VMware tends to slip more features into its products during the beta cycle? It's like Christmas every day around here. You think you've poked and shaken all the boxes in your parents' closet and know what's coming, and then the shiny new bike shows up in front of the tree. Today's shiny bike is a free year of virus protection for your XP or Vista VMs that you can invoke from the Fusion toolbar. There are other new features in the  RC, which you can read about here: VMware: Team Fusion: VMware Fusion 2 Goes Release Candidate: Embedded Antivirus Software, Enhanced Localization, and More.

VMware Fusion 2 Release Candidate 1 is now freely available for download.

Just like VMware Fusion 2 Beta 1 and VMware Fusion 2 Beta 2, the RC is free to download.  VMware Fusion 2 will be a free, downloadable upgrade for all VMware Fusion 1.x customers, when released.

Keep those bugs away!

Building on great features like Multiple Snapshots and AutoProtect automatic, timed snapshots that keep your Windows-on-Mac experience as safe as possible, VMware Fusion 2 RC also includes an embedded complimentary 12-month subscription to McAfee VirusScan Plus to make sure your Windows XP and Vista stay squeaky clean.

You can install VirusScan Plus right from the VMware Fusion menu bar, from the moment you create a new virtual machine, meaning you’re always protected.