VMware Fusion 12 Announced With Support for macOS Big Sur, eGPUs, and More

At this point I wish Apple would buy Parallels or Fusion and just integrate it into macOS, or maybe even come up with there own. IMHO Fusion and Paralells are way over priced for what they are. macOS has all of the low level support for running VMs but just lacks a user facing interface. I know there are few open source projects out there like xhyve, maybe they can throw some money to that.

Ideally it would be something like WSL 2 in Windows, or maybe just something like libvirt and Virtual Machine Manager in Linux would be fine. Third parties could offer stuff like Kubernetes distros packaged on top of it for devs.
 
the writer said:
You make a good point about the cloud. However some of my corporate clients prohibit the use of any cloud-based solution, even for encrypted backups. They are concerned about cyber security in the cloud. True, many are not, but I think we need to dispel this myth that everything will end up cloud-based.
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Also, there's still plenty of people who can't rely on the cloud for everything because they don't always have a solid internet connection. My entire industry(live entertainment) struggles with getting a good internet connection at shows. Because of that we lug around lots of gear just to avoid internet connectivity issues.
 
nph said:
Well, with this pricing it is bye bye Parallels and VMWare here i come! I only use it occasionally so for me the new pricing is perfect. For my intel imac I can then run Windows the few times i need to without the recurring cost Parallels charge.
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Same here, I will give iy a spin to see how it works and if it handles my light use needs I'll stick with free over $49/year. I suspect it will handle Office and PowerBI just fine; based on my past experience with VMware.

chrfr said:
You will not be able to virtualize an Intel operating system on the Apple Silicon Macs– this is Intel only. There's extensive threads on it
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Yup. The best hope is MS makes Windows/ARM a viable alternative to x64, and thus programs get poprted to WinARM to the point where there is no functional difference to the end user. For me, Office, including Visio and PowerBI would be enough to not need a separate winboxen.
 
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MrGimper said:
Nice, look forward to seeing how it compared to the Tech Preview.

And people really need to learn the difference between virtualisation and emulation :cool:
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The problem is while there are real technical differences, the end user doesn't care; all they want is theoir machine to run Windows outside of Bootcamp. That problem is not unique to computer technology, many occupations have terms that have very specific technical meanings whose distinction is lost on outsiders.
 
icymountain said:
As an example, does the "Fusion 12 Player" version support it ?
I am trying to read the differences in the fine print.
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Fusion Player is the replacement for the non-pro version of Fusion and I'm sure it'll work fine with Linux guests.
 
there is something that I do not understand. I already have a license for vmware fusion 11. If I want to go to version 12 I have to pay for the upgrade. But can I keep version 11 if I upgrade to BIG SUR? or won't it work?
 
Richy85 said:
there is something that I do not understand. I already have a license for vmware fusion 11. If I want to go to version 12 I have to pay for the upgrade. But can I keep version 11 if I upgrade to BIG SUR? or won't it work?
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Version 11 can't run in Big Sur because it depends on kernel extensions which no longer work.
 
dewalt said:
If Fusion were anywhere near as good as Parallels (primarily running Office apps in coherence mode). Parallels simply did much more with less assigned resources.
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Fusion 12 Player, free for personal use.
For people like me still using parallels V10, moving to a free Fusion 12 will be very tempting.

I can't see what Parallels can do to remain competitive during the next 2/3 years being that they don't run a version for Windows or Linux (as far as I know) unlike VMWARE.
 
robinp said:
There are lots of sarcastic and rude replies to this but I think the question is totally valid.

It is reasonable to expect VMWare and Parallels might release emulated versions of their software to allow Apple Silicon Macs to run x86 windows. I, for one, am hopefully they will so looking out for indications of this in announcements is totally legit.
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If they don't, someone else will.
For people like me using Windows strictly to run a very old piece of software, we wouldn't care if it runs natively or in emulation.

If one wants to run anything else, they should buy a PC. They can cost as little as the price for a Parallels or VMWARE license.
 
Ohples said:
At this point I wish Apple would buy Parallels or Fusion and just integrate it into macOS, or maybe even come up with there own. IMHO Fusion and Paralells are way over priced for what they are. macOS has all of the low level support for running VMs but just lacks a user facing interface. I know there are few open source projects out there like xhyve, maybe they can throw some money to that.

Ideally it would be something like WSL 2 in Windows, or maybe just something like libvirt and Virtual Machine Manager in Linux would be fine. Third parties could offer stuff like Kubernetes distros packaged on top of it for devs.
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That would be a dead end, since none of that would work on apple silicon (unless you want to virtualize arm OS’s)
 
Waiting for the former programmers of Connectix Virtual PC to startup again with an ARM version of Windows emulation.
 
I bootcamp to Windows 10 on my Mac Mini and use an eGPU to play games on Windows. I see this has eGPU support - is this something to consider using, or are there pros and cons to consider? Thanks.
 
icymountain said:
As an example, does the "Fusion 12 Player" version support it ?
I am trying to read the differences in the fine print.
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Yes. "Player" is the new name for the previous standard (non-pro) Fusion. It is a full-featured desktop virtualization product, and of course it supports Linux VMs. The Pro version offers additional advanced features that primarily benefit developers, such as customizable virtual networks, being able to connect to vSphere and ESXi servers, and linked VM clones.

I am really happy to see that a Pro license now works for both Fusion Pro on Mac and Workstation Pro on Linux and Windows ...
 
chucker23n1 said:
Yes, but that doesn't preclude anyone from making, say, a Windows on ARM VM using Hypervisor.framework, then running x86-32 apps inside that.
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Windows on ARM has **** performance when running x86 apps natively so you can imagine how slow it would be running in virtual machine. Additionally, ARM licenses are only sold directly to OEMs and (as far as I know) only work with Qualcomm CPUs.
 
JosephAW said:
Waiting for the former programmers of Connectix Virtual PC to startup again with an ARM version of Windows emulation.
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Probably hardly the same team any more, but much of the tech from Connectix Virtual PC ended up in Microsoft Hyper-V and some of their Azure stuff. So Microsoft does have the know-how both to virtualize, and to emulate (emulate x86 in PowerPC, anyway).

alex2792 said:
Windows on ARM has **** performance when running x86 apps natively so you can imagine how slow it would be running in virtual machine. Additionally, ARM licenses are only sold directly to OEMs and (as far as I know) only work with Qualcomm CPUs.
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Welllllll.

For one, we don't really know what emulating x86 on Apple's ARM designs would be like. We do know that, as far as publicly available chips go, Apple is way ahead of Qualcomm.

As for licensing: sure. But if Corel (Parallels) or VMware were to ask Microsoft if they want to do a bundle where you buy VMware Fusion or whatever for $149 and it includes Windows 10 on ARM, I doubt they'd say no.

Lastly, my understanding is Windows on ARM is only supported on Qualcomm, but people have gotten it to work on Raspberry. When dual-booting, there are other concerns, such as getting it to boot from iBoot (ARM Macs are unlikely to have EFI, OpenFirmware, or similar), but for virtualization, that's not relevant.
 
fokmik said:
If Microsoft will make Windows 10 arm to buy from October as rumours says...than there you go
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You can extract an ISO from a W10onARM already. There is a tool currently used by those who want to run WoA on their Raspberry Pi. It works very well.
 
When Apple goes to Apple Silicon, the best way to continue to use Windows will likely be to run it in the cloud and RDP to it rather than continuing to use virtualization apps.

Not a perfect solution, but its the likely one I think.
 
jlc1978 said:
Din't MS buy Connectix? I ran it on an old Performa way back when.
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Yes. Connectix Virtual PC became Microsoft Virtual PC on the Mac. On Windows, it briefly formed the basis of Windows XP Mode on Windows 7 (to run old apps; I kind of wish Apple had done something similar to run 32-bit apps on Catalina), and eventually evolved into Microsoft Hyper-V, which is their VMware ESX competitor.
 
typecase said:
I just bought 11.5 at the end of July. I wonder if I will quality for a free upgrade. Anyone else in the same boat?
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Your license should be upgraded without any action on your part. If you bought the standard version, you will receive a commercial license for Fusion Player (since it's free for personal use); if you bought a pro license you will receive a new license key that will work with both Fusion Pro and Workstation Pro. (Since starting with 12 Fusion Pro license work with Workstation Pro for windows and linux.)

From VMware:
We’ve also made changes to our Technology Guarantee Program. Users who bought Fusion 11.5 or Fusion 11.5 Pro after June 15th 2020 (roughly when Big Sur was announced) will be automatically given new license keys for Fusion 12 Player or Fusion 12 Pro, respectively, in their MyVMware portal. Eligible users will be emailed once the automatic license upgrade happens to their account.

Because Fusion Player is now free for personal use, Fusion 11.5 customers entitled for an upgrade under the TGP will provided a Commercial Use license.
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Ohples said:
At this point I wish Apple would buy Parallels or Fusion and just integrate it into macOS, or maybe even come up with there own. IMHO Fusion and Paralells are way over priced for what they are. macOS has all of the low level support for running VMs but just lacks a user facing interface. I know there are few open source projects out there like xhyve, maybe they can throw some money to that.

Ideally it would be something like WSL 2 in Windows, or maybe just something like libvirt and Virtual Machine Manager in Linux would be fine. Third parties could offer stuff like Kubernetes distros packaged on top of it for devs.
Click to expand...

VMware is part of EMC, which is part of Dell.
Not for sell.
 
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