VMware Fusion 11 Released With Support for macOS Mojave, 18-Core iMac Pro, and More

[chrfr]

Does anyone know if its possible to run "headless" vm's yet in Fusion? I do prefer Fusion to Parallels but the inability to do so has forced me down the Parallels route..

Headless mode for anyone interested... https://kb.parallels.com/en/123298

That’s been possible with Fusion for a long time by using the “vmrun” command.

 

[MacRS4]

Some performance comparisons here:

 

[Deep_Thought]

That’s been possible with Fusion for a long time by using the “vmrun” command.

But if you launch VMWare then quit it does it also shut down the VM? In Parallels, what ever I do in the app does not effect the VM running in the background.. If Fusion follows the same then that is awesome news!

 

[chrfr]

But if you launch VMWare then quit it does it also shut down the VM? In Parallels, what ever I do in the app does not effect the VM running in the background.. If Fusion follows the same then that is awesome news!

If you quit Fusion you should be prompted to leave the VM running in the background. I haven’t personally verified this with 11, though.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

I agree but many software stops working as they update the OS. I bought software that used to work on iOS 9 now it won't work on iOS 12. Its not the software developer problem that I updated, but the platform owner (Apple), forces you to updated if you buy a new device (new iPhone), keep older OS and risk security issues, or simply some features will stop working like Cloud Syncing.

Its a chicken and egg problem, you either update everything together and keep paying forever just to keep the software working or don't update a thing including buying newer hardware.

I am not sure what programmers do, but I always see new updates almost on weekly basis, but the software still does and work the same for years. I have few example like IMDB, YouTube, DropBox, and Twitter. Sure they had few big re-designs over the years but the keyword here is years. I don't know what happening on weekly basis.

That's not the OS makers fault. That's how it works across every single operating system on the market. There's a reason many large companies are still running Windows XP or even Windows 98 on some machines. The software they need either isn't compatible with the newer operating system or they're just not willing to fork out the money to upgrade. Again, that's not the fault of Apple or Microsoft.

The apps you listed are all free. They make their money in other ways, so it's in their best interest to make sure their apps always work with the latest OS. If they fail to do so, they lose money. Their business model is COMPLETELY different from those who make paid software.

 

[Deep_Thought]

If you quit Fusion you should be prompted to leave the VM running in the background. I haven’t personally verified this with 11, though.

Thanks - I'll get a test running and try it out - I'll confirm back when I've found out..

 

[chucker23n1]

I am not sure what programmers do, but I always see new updates almost on weekly basis, but the software still does and work the same for years. I have few example like IMDB, YouTube, DropBox, and Twitter. Sure they had few big re-designs over the years but the keyword here is years. I don't know what happening on weekly basis.

I don't know about IMDB, but Twitter certainly gets updated very frequently, roughly every two weeks. Twitter Inc. has thousands of employees. Their app is free because their business model (selling information about you) is quite different. If they took money directly from customers, Twitter would almost certainly be paid on a subscription basis. (As is, they "only" make $7.5 per year per user.)

The same applies to YouTube. Dropbox does make much of its money with subscriptions — $111.91 per user per year on average, in fact — so I'm not sure why you'd bring that up in a case against subscriptions?

 

[maflynn]

Some performance comparisons here:

I've just installed Fusion 11 and upgrade my existing VM (version 10), and my windows boot up time was 32 seconds on my 2018 MBP. Additionally I took a snapshot and uninstalled an app and restored the snapshot just like the video, and that only 50 seconds. Now my windows 10 VM is tiny (only 50GB) so maybe he has a larger VM and that will take longer.

I'm not done messing with Fusion, but so far I'm liking how its working. If I use bootcamp, I have major throttling issues, and my temps are pegged near 100c, not so with Fusion. My MBP running with macOS is cool.

Another difference between his machine and mine, is I'm still on High Sierra, maybe Mojave is the issue ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[chucker23n1]

I've just installed Fusion 11 and upgrade my existing VM (version 10), and my windows boot up time was 32 seconds on my 2018 MBP.

I just timed it on my 2013 rMBP. 2 cores, 8 GiB RAM. Same ~32s, interestingly enough.

This is clearly a much slower machine than an iMac Pro, so I don't know what's going on with his system. My guess? Having VirtualBox, Parallels and VMware installed really isn't a good idea, especially if multiple of those kernel extensions are running.

Another difference between his machine and mine, is I'm still on High Sierra, maybe Mojave is the issue ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Nope. Don't see significant differences between 10.13.6 and 10.14.0.

 

[MacRS4]

I've just installed Fusion 11 and upgrade my existing VM (version 10), and my windows boot up time was 32 seconds on my 2018 MBP. Additionally I took a snapshot and uninstalled an app and restored the snapshot just like the video, and that only 50 seconds. Now my windows 10 VM is tiny (only 50GB) so maybe he has a larger VM and that will take longer.

I'm not done messing with Fusion, but so far I'm liking how its working. If I use bootcamp, I have major throttling issues, and my temps are pegged near 100c, not so with Fusion. My MBP running with macOS is cool.

Another difference between his machine and mine, is I'm still on High Sierra, maybe Mojave is the issue ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I wondered that, but my 2016 MBP is still on High Sierra. 2018 & iMac pro on Mojave, and getting same issues on all 3. Even built a new machine on the individual ones. I suspect it's a mess up between the multiple hyper-visors I have installed. I've been talking to their developers today so perhaps it'll be nailed in a fix shortly. Hoping anyway - it's completely broken my day aha.

 

[maflynn]

it's a mess up between the multiple hyper-visors I have installed. I

That I can understand. I used to need VirtualBox installed for work but so far that need hasn't re-occurred. so far on its own, VMware has been stable, and fast but I'll be the first to admit I've not put it through it's paces.

 

[MacBH928]

I don't know about IMDB, but Twitter certainly gets updated very frequently, roughly every two weeks. Twitter Inc. has thousands of employees. Their app is free because their business model (selling information about you) is quite different. If they took money directly from customers, Twitter would almost certainly be paid on a subscription basis. (As is, they "only" make $7.5 per year per user.)

The same applies to YouTube. Dropbox does make much of its money with subscriptions — $111.91 per user per year on average, in fact — so I'm not sure why you'd bring that up in a case against subscriptions?

You understood me wrong, I meant they upgrade way too often and maybe they should not upgrade so much. Upgrading so often means more work for the developer which will rise costs. As an end user I really do not see or feel anything different on these weekly updates apps/software.
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That's not the OS makers fault. That's how it works across every single operating system on the market. There's a reason many large companies are still running Windows XP or even Windows 98 on some machines. The software they need either isn't compatible with the newer operating system or they're just not willing to fork out the money to upgrade. Again, that's not the fault of Apple or Microsoft.

The apps you listed are all free. They make their money in other ways, so it's in their best interest to make sure their apps always work with the latest OS. If they fail to do so, they lose money. Their business model is COMPLETELY different from those who make paid software.

I am saying app developers should not upgrade so much, everyone feels like they should upgrade on a weekly basis. Save yourself work, costs, and the consumer money by having longer upgrading intervals. Some app makers that use this method are ImgBrn, TweetBot, and HandbRake. They all work just as good one year later or 1.5 years later.


The problem is that you do not get to have the option to keep the older OS simply because:-
1)Security vulnerabilities... all those running WIn98 and WinXp are risking huge issues.
2)If you need to buy newer software, it won't work on your older software. Say like You have Office 2008 but you want to run Evernote, the Evernote app won't work on the same OS Office 08 works on. So you are forced to upgrade everything.
3)Hardware failure. Sometimes hardware fails and when you buy newer hardware it won't run older software. Ex. Mac hardware will only run OS that was shipped with it. If you buy MacBook 2018 It will only go back as far as High Sierra... it will not boot on anything earlier.

 

[sjinsjca]

This is very attractive.

But... for a VM running a Windows 7, 8 or 10 client, does changing the virtual disk type trigger a re-activation for Windows? Some virtual-hardware changes do, such as changing the number of processor cores. (Changing virtual hard disk size does not.)

Before I screw things up with my VMs, I'd sure appreciate assurance from someone who has tried this!

Update: I've tried the update to the new NVMe disk format option for my Windows 10 VM, and it now seems to be working well, but it's a bit of a scary process. Apparently you shouldn't just switch the disk type to NVMe and expect to go on your merry way. Fortunately, the process doesn't take very long. However, depending on your VM's configuration, there may be several steps involved.

For example, my Win10 VM was originally an upgrade from Win7, so it was still using an MBR boot format and legacy BIOS firmware. To enjoy the new NVMe virtual disk capability, I had to:

1. Back up my VM! Really important in case you need to revert.
2. Apply any Windows Updates. Some of the steps below require the VM to be running a recent Windows build.
3. Update the VM to UEFI firmware, following the steps at "Converting Windows® Installation from Legacy to UEFI without Data Loss" https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www...8/memory-and-storage/intel-optane-memory.html
4. Create a fresh copy of the VM, using the documented by @RickShu at https://communities.vmware.com/thread/597386. Work on this copy, verifying the new VM boots after each major step and fixing anything that breaks before proceeding. Note: my step (3) above is courtesy of @c6ten's post on the same forum page. However, his/her final step, regarding modifying the .vmx file, did not work for me, yielding a non-bootable VM. Fortunately the mod is performed using TextEdit and was easily reverted.

It all seems to work. There was no disk-repair process invoked. The VM is snappier and probably kinder to the flash storage on my Mac and more energy-efficient. UPDATE: It took a few reboots but now my VM is insisting on re-activating Windows. Sigh.

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That I can understand. I used to need VirtualBox installed for work but so far that need hasn't re-occurred. so far on its own, VMware has been stable, and fast but I'll be the first to admit I've not put it through it's paces.

FWIW, I use VirtualBox and VMWare simultaneously and seem to have no problems, especially on my new MacBook Pro with its glorious 32GB of RAM and six cores. On my previous (16GB/4 core) machine, resource starvation was an occasional problem.