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 reviewed our debut a little over a year ago, and back then came to the conclusion that he liked VMware Fusion 1 for its speed, stability, and low impact on his Mac.
As he put it back then, “In my tests, Fusion never slowed down my MacBook Pro laptop or two other Macs on which I tested it…I found VMware Fusion puts less strain on the computer overall. While I like Parallels and have used it since it came out, it sometimes slows down my Mac.”
Take Two!
In his current review, Walt focuses on how VMware Fusion 2 makes great strides in further breaking down the walls between Windows and the Mac, for example, with our Keyboard Mapping feature (video demo), and Multiple Display support (video demo).
As he puts it, VMware Fusion “permits you to completely customize keyboard commands so that the same common key combinations work in both Windows and Mac programs,” and “It allows the faux Windows machine to take full advantage of multiple monitors, if you have them.”
Virtual 3D Performance
3D performance was also something that Walt was happy with, and something in which VMware Fusion 2 has made great strides. When VMware Fusion 1 launched back in August of 2007, we supported DirectX 8.1, upping that to DirectX 9 without Shaders in VMware Fusion 1.1 as of November 2007, and now, VMware Fusion 2 supports DirectX 9 Shader Model 2.
As he puts it, “VMware Fusion also uses a more modern and capable version of the proprietary 3-D graphics system in Windows, called DirectX. That means some Windows-only games and other programs that won’t work in Parallels will work in Fusion. I successfully tested two such programs, both from Microsoft: Worldwide Telescope and Photosynth.”
We actually have a some fun demos of both Microsoft Photosynth (video) and Worldwide Telescope (video) running on VMware Fusion 2 for you to check out, if you’re interested.
Safer Windows on the Mac
Walt also was jazzed on how VMware Fusion 2 makes Windows safer on the Mac. Particularly, he called out our new AutoProtect automatic snapshots (video demo), and complimentary 12-months of antivirus and antispyware software that is an optional install.
As he puts it, VMware Fusion “allows you to automatically take those protective snapshots at timed intervals,” and “also offers a one-year free subscription to Windows security software.”
The Bottom Line
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.”
Looking forward to more reviews as they come in, and those from our hundreds of thousands of users!
You can also check out Walt’s video commentary below:
