December 8th, 2008
VMware Fusion virtual machines for Mac OS X
Peter Kazanjy, Product Marketing, VMware Fusion, “dropped by” and introduced himself. He wanted me to be aware of company’s entry into the virtual machine software market for Mac OS X. I guess that he wanted to offer me another viewpoint on the world my post “Parallels Desktop 4 for Mac or how I lost my socks” appeared. What he had to say and the video demonstrations on the Internet were quite interesting.
Here are some snippets containing some of the points he’s made during our Email conversation:
- “…And the nice thing about VMware Fusion, is that its VMs are cross compatible with all VMware runtimes, like VMware Workstation, and our server products too.”
- “…We actually have support for our Unity view … for Linux distributions, namely Ubuntu and Red Hat” <It’s clear that he was pointing out that VMware Fusion made it possible for applications running in different virtual machines, supported by different operating systems, could also just appear as separate windows on a Mac’s screen. DK>
- … Shared folders are trivial to set up as well. Just go to “Virtual Machine> Shared Folder> Add Shared Folder” on the menu bar, and select where you want your shared folder on the guest VM to point on the Mac.
Peter pointed out that VMware’s product can do everything that the Parallels product does. He went on to state that those functions are easier to accomplish with his product. The demonstrations cleverly hidden on YouTube certainly make the product appear easy to use.
Peter went on to discuss how VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop are implemented to explain why the performance of Fusion is better.
Peter has offered me a trial copy of Fusion. When I wade through all of the papers on my desk and actually find my computer, I’ll take him up on it and install the software.
VMware, Parallels along with several other players are offering virtual machine software for systems running Mac OS X. It would be worth the time to evaluate them before embarking on the journey to a virtualized desktop environment.
Daniel Kusnetzky is a member of the senior management team of The 451 Group. He is responsible for research and publications on a broad array of technology topics. He examines emerging technology trends, vendor strategies, research and development issues, and end-user integration requirements. You can follow Dan on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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