VMWare releases Fusion virtualization software
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Aug 6, 2007 at 2:18pm
VMware has announced general availability of VMware Fusion. Based on VMware’s desktop virtualization platform, VMware Fusion allows Mac users to simultaneously run Mac OS X, Windows and other PC-based applications on a single Mac.
VMware Fusion delivers the most advanced Mac virtualization software available today, says Pat Lee, product manager for VMware Fusion. Some of its strong points include: allowing Mac users to take advantage of their hardware’s full potential by running both 32- and 64-bit operating systems; leveraging two processor cores at the same time; and using a wide variety of USB 2.0 devices.
“Fusion offers a Mac specific interface for Mac users,” he says. “It’s Cocoa-developed interface puts less strain on your Mac than other software for running a variety of operating systems and software. There’s no limit to the number of virtual machines you can have running at the same time beyond your Mac’s memory.”
VMware Fusion is the only Mac virtualization software available today to provide full support for more than 60 operating systems and complete power management capabilities to safeguard virtual machines when laptops are running out of battery, Lee adds. There have been more than 250,000 downloads of VMware Fusion since the beta became available in December 2006.
In a press conference introducing the final version of Fusion, Lee says VMWare is looking at ways to expand product line over time. He added the best results for gamers is running a Mactel with a dedicated GPU, rather than Intel integrated graphics.
“However, we do support the Intel GPU and try to offer best gaming experience possible on it,” Lee adds.
Fusion costs US$59.99 after a $20 mail-in rebate. It requires: any Intel-based Mac (however, to run 64-bit operating systems, an Intel Mac with a Core 2 Duo or Xeon processor is required); 512MB of RAM (1GB or more is recommended); 275MB free disk space for VMware Fusion; 1GB free disk space for each virtual machine (10GB or more recommended); and Mac OS X 10.4.9 or later.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
