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As many of you may recall, at Macworld in January, we gave you a preview of Mac OS X Leopard Server installing and running as a virtual machine on Mac OS X.
Well, in honor of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, currently in full-swing in San Francisco, the VMware Fusion team is excited to announce that Mac OS X Leopard Server will be our 61st supported virtualized operating system, and will be available in VMware Fusion 2.0’s next beta (get the current beta here).
By way of background, all of this is a result of changes Mac OS X Leopard Server’s license agreement, which now allows users to run multiple copies of Mac OS X Server on a single Apple computer.
Virtual Leopard Server is a huge leap forward for Mac server administrators, developers, and more, and we’re truly excited to bring this to the Mac community, in VMware Fusion 2.0, which will be a free upgrade for all VMware Fusion 1.x customers.
And as has lately become our tradition, we’ve put together a short highlight video to get you started, along with more details below.
Big Cats and Big Iron: Mac Server Administrator’s Delight
Do your Mac Pros or Xserves ache to run flat out?
VMware Fusion 2.0 will let you to run as many copies of Mac OS X Server on your powerful Mac hardware as you have RAM to support them. Or mix it up with multiple server operating systems running together, like Windows Server 2003, Linux and Mac OS X servers, simultaneously on one machine.
VMware Fusion brings the full power of the VMware’s proven, reliable virtualization technology to Mac OS X Server virtualization with big iron features like dual-core virtual machines, support for 64-bit operating systems, and large memory support—up to 8 gigs per VM.
Mac Development Made Easier…Virtually!
Mac developers will now be able to enjoy what Windows and Linux engineers have had since VMware Workstation shipped in 1998: the flexibility and agility of multiple virtual machines to develop on and test against.
Virtual Mac OS X Leopard Server on VMware Fusion 2.0 kicks Mac software testing and bug fixing into overdrive. Instead of fussing with configurations and settings of an operating system and hardware to reproduce a QA tester’s system, just copy the tester’s virtual machine and reliably and quickly repro the bug, write a fix, roll back to a snapshot, and test again.
And let’s not forget all the cross-platform developers out there. VMware Fusion 2.0 will be the ultimate Mac developer tool for cross-platform and mobile development. Developers can run Xcode and Visual Studio on the same machine, compile, and then test the software in multiple virtual operating systems, whether Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS X Server and Linux, running as virtual machines. The same goes for iPhone SDK developers running their J2ME, Symbian, and Windows Mobile development tools!
Let the Cat Out of the Cage: Beta Participation!
VMware Fusion 2.0’s support for Mac OS X Leopard Server will enable hard core Mac technology gurus—from Xserve farmers to Cocoa junkies—to do more with their powerful Mac hardware.
Stay tuned to this blog, or follow our Twitter stream to grab the next beta, complete with virtual Leopard Server support, when it hits the streets.
And in the mean time, come grab VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1, already chock full of great features!
