VMware Fusion offers seamless Windows on Macs

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 07 August 2007 01:18

Business IT - Technology

EMC subsidiary VMware has announced general availability of VMware Fusion that allows Intel-based Mac users to simultaneously run Mac OS X, Windows and other PC-based applications on a single Mac.

The software has been available in beta since December 2006 and VMware claims that over 250,000 copies have been downloaded.

Fusion closely integrates Windows apps with the Mac user interface; it enables users to switch between Windows and Mac applications quickly with Exposé, and to minimise Windows applications to the Mac OS X Dock. The iSight camera can be used in Windows and users can gain access to Windows-only USB 2.0 devices.

It also enables anyone running a Windows PC to migrate to the Mac platform: a free VMware Converter Starter Edition can be used to transform the Windows PC into a VMware Fusion-compatible virtual machine which can then be copied from PC to Mac.

On Intel based Macs running the Core 2 Duo or Xeon processors Fusion will support 64 bit operating systems: Windows Vista (Business, Enterprise and Ultimate Editions); Windows XP Professional; SUSE Linux (10.1, 9.3); Red Hat Enterprise Linux (5.0, 4.0 Update 4, 3.0 Update 8); Solaris x86 10 11/06 (Update 3); Ubuntu Linux (6.10, 5.10); Mandriva Linux (2007, 2006) and FreeBSD (6.1, 5.5).

Server systems supported are Windows Server 2003 (SP1 Enterprise Edition, R2 Enterprise Edition);SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (10, 9 SP3); Red Hat Enterprise Linux (5.0, 4.0 Update 4, 3.0 Update 8); Solaris x86 10 11/06 (Update 3); Ubuntu Linux (6.10, 5.10); Mandriva Linux (2007, 2006); FreeBSD (6.1, 5.5)

VMware Fusion is available online at vmware.com/mac , for $US79.99. A free 30 day evaluation copy is available.