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Eug · Apr 6, 2007, 02:30 PM

So how is it? I haven't tried VMWare Fusion in any form, and I'll wait for now. (I already have Parallels.)

MacDailyNews | VMware Fusion for Mac Beta 3 released

hookem2oo7 · 03:03 PM

I tried to boot my boot camp partition with it (I've been using the betas since they were available to the public) and I got this message:

I didn't want to go through the hassles of windows activation (I have a legal copy on my boot camp partition, btw) and calling microsoft to get it to reactivate so I didn't test this aspect of VMWare. This build does seem faster than the last with a win2000 virtual machine I have maybe because I turned off the debugging...who knows?

EDIT::: So I couldn't help but try it anyway. VMWare booted my boot camp partition, found a bunch of new hardware and everything was working fine. Then windows activation came up, so I shut down vmware and rebooted to my boot camp partition to see what kind of damage had been done. Aside from making me go through the activation wizard again (i didn't even have to call

), everything is fine...I'm posting this from IE7 in boot camp...

inkhead · Apr 6, 2007, 10:00 PM

VMware takes care of activation, don't worry it won't get screwed up. BTW Fusion beta 3 is Awesome compared to parallels. Blow it out of the water in speed. Just be sure to uncheck "enable debugging" in the preferences. Unlike Parallels, it unsuspends & suspends very quickly, and never freezes up the computer for a few seconds while it's loading. I love it! So stable, makes Parallels feel like a house of cards.

inkhead · Apr 6, 2007, 10:03 PM

Originally Posted by Eug

So how is it? I haven't tried VMWare Fusion in any form, and I'll wait for now. (I already have Parallels.)

MacDailyNews | VMware Fusion for Mac Beta 3 released

Dude you are totally missing out! Parallels is very annoying after using VMware, which is more stable, and has much better threading and SMB support. You don't get the random freezes while loading the OS, and suspend takes 4 seconds on my macbook pro, and doesn't bring the computer to a crawl while doing things. Parallels is buggy as all.

Not to mention Parallels is useless for any USB2 devices that are not mice or keyboards. In VMware Fusion I can plug in my Motorola Q phone and run a freaking firmware update to the Motorola Q with virtualization! Try that in Parallels, you'll brick your phone! You can use every kind of complex USB device just like you would if you fully ran windows. It's fantastic.

Oh and it's free.

Wiskedjak · Apr 6, 2007, 10:21 PM

See ya, Parallels ...

TheoCryst · Apr 7, 2007, 12:18 AM

Wow, this latest beta absolutely blows Parallels out of the water. I want to use my Vista Boot Camp partition without rebooting? VMWare can, Parallels can't. I want to print to my HP 3740 printer with absolutely no hassle whatsoever? VMWare can, Parallels can't. "Tools" support for Linux? Easier to use interface? The beginnings of DirectX support (only 8.1 so far, but 9 is coming)? VMWare, VMWare, VMWare.

So long, Parallels.

brokenjago · Apr 7, 2007, 12:56 AM

Yeah, it looks like VMware is going to give Parallels some serious run for it's money.

Although, official notes say that Vista is not officially supported by this thing. is this untrue?

Eug · Apr 7, 2007, 01:48 AM

OK, you guys convinced me to try it, on my MacBook with Vista installed via BootCamp. It works, but:

1) It's quite slow. I don't really have a frame of reference though with which to directly compare. Parallels with Win XP is faster, but that's on a different machine with a virtual disk, and XP ain't Vista either. (I had Vista set to 768 MB or 1024 MB, out of 2048 MB.)
2) I can't get the audio controller to work. It's looking for drivers. Do I just install the BootCamp drivers, or is this some custom VMWare audio controller? I can't download drivers because...
3) Networking doesn't work either. Caveat: At the time I was using wireless. I tried both the bridged setting and the NAT setting. I didn't not try using my wired Ethernet though. Again it said there were no drivers for my networking, but I couldn't download drivers cuz I wasn't hooked up to the net.
4) As expected Vista Aero Glass doesn't work. No flashy 3D effects. That's no big deal, but the annoying part is that it futzed up my previously installed video drivers. When I rebooted natively into Vista I had no Aero, and I couldn't utilize the full 1280x800 resolution either. I had to re-download the Intel video drivers in order to get full video functionality back.

The good news though is that my Vista activation remained intact, both within the VMWare virtual machine, and after rebooted into Vista directly.

brokenjago · Apr 7, 2007, 02:08 AM

You turned off debugging code, right?

brokenjago · Apr 7, 2007, 03:12 AM

So I just installed VMware, and tried to boot Vista Ultimate via BootCamp. It bluescreens on boot, every time. Is there anyone else with a Mac Pro this happens to?

Eug · Apr 7, 2007, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by brokenjago

You turned off debugging code, right?

Yes.

mfbernstein · Apr 7, 2007, 09:37 AM

Did anybody read the actual release notes? Vista in Boot Camp is _NOT_ _SUPPORTED_. Explicitly. Precisely because it doesn't work, and the engineers know that. Given that official Boot Camp support for Vista is all of 2 weeks old, it sort of makes sense.

(And yes, VMWare Fusion has its share of bugs and rough edges. It is a beta).

Eug · Apr 7, 2007, 10:08 AM

Originally Posted by mfbernstein

Did anybody read the actual release notes? Vista in Boot Camp is _NOT_ _SUPPORTED_. Explicitly. Precisely because it doesn't work, and the engineers know that. Given that official Boot Camp support for Vista is all of 2 weeks old, it sort of makes sense.

(And yes, VMWare Fusion has its share of bugs and rough edges. It is a beta).

We (or at least some of us) know Vista isn't officially supported.

However, now I know why.

kmkkid · Apr 7, 2007, 11:11 AM

Fusion + Vista Ultimate (Bootcamp) on my CD iMac = BSOD BSOD BSOD. It boots, albeit very slowly, then after a while, it BSODS for seemingly no reason. Well it does give a USB error on the BSOD. So maybe I have to disable my iSight, see how that goes.

sieb · Apr 10, 2007, 04:04 AM

Bootcamp Vista in VMware worked fine for me after I loaded the vmware tools drivers, but upon booting into Vista natively, it kept wanting to load up all the vmware drivers. Apparently it doesn't use a separate hardware profile like Parallels does. Never BSOD'd on me, but I had to uninstall vmware tools and reinstall all my Bootcamp drivers.

tavin64 · Apr 22, 2007, 04:43 PM

VMWare Fusion Beta 3 is so much faster than parallels with windows xp. When i used to run parallels with word and excel 2007 open and then use Xcode all 3 at once my macbook would start to crawl. With VMWare I can do the same thing and notice absolutely no slowdown.