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I don't know how many times we have to go over this. Apple Silicon Macs will NOT RUN WINDOWS as you know it.
While this is true for virtualization, it's not true for emulation, which would be admittedly a big step down in performance. But is is likely possible. Macs were running Windows on VirtualPC emulation software long before Intel chips.
 
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look on the bright side, in the future Microsoft may release ARM Windows which will make other software vendors release ARM software and intel will be left in the dust. Everything seems to be going RISC these days including the super computers.
 
I use to use VMware Fusion and Parallels on Mac OS, but I found it was always slow for what I wanted to do on it or compatibility issues. Bootcamp has always given me the performance and compatibility I needed. My thing was once Office 365 came around where you could run office on the Mac with the same license I had on my work computer VMware was no longer needed. With the change to ARM, I will be using game consoles more and having the Mac only for business uses. Small IOS games do not really hit the mark and Mac has never had a large gaming platform on the Mac.
 
Bottom left of the webpage 'Fusion 12 Player'. Register for a free personal use license. The license key you receive is perpetual, not trial. Not for 30 days. I have it up and running.

View attachment 953101

I am checking the link and it only takes me to the evaluation page, regardless of if I click register for home/ student use. What am I missing?
 

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Last time i used Fusion (v8 or 9) it mangled my Bootcamp partition which i had to erase.
Always liked VMWare interface but since that happened i switched to Parallels.

I basically use VM to deal with updates and files transfer on my BC partition without rebooting but then always restart the mac on Win10 if i have to actively run apps.

The free license is a no brainer though.. as i dont need/use any of the pro features.

Do you guys recon this version is better than Parallels?
Same situation here, I barely just launch a windows ‘window’ to run a bat file or something very low key.
However, I have realized that the Parallels Toolbox has been filled with amazing little snippets of applications that happen to make my life inside Mac a whole lot easier. But wonder if that’s actually still worth it. I got parallels to sometimes open 3dsmax files and export stuff... I did that ONCE in the last 6 months.
 
I use to use VMware Fusion and Parallels on Mac OS, but I found it was always slow for what I wanted to do on it or compatibility issues. Bootcamp has always given me the performance and compatibility I needed. My thing was once Office 365 came around where you could run office on the Mac with the same license I had on my work computer VMware was no longer needed. With the change to ARM, I will be using game consoles more and having the Mac only for business uses. Small IOS games do not really hit the mark and Mac has never had a large gaming platform on the Mac.

I'd imagine performance can be affected by what hardware you're running on, how much RAM, discrete or integrated GPU and so on. I've found VMWare running Windows 10 to be able to run Office365 just as smoothly as on Bootcamp. Being able to run macOS and Windows 10 side by side has its benefits for some. Some Windows Office365 apps/features aren't available on the macOS version. Even gaming with older titles on VMWare they run just as well as Bootcamp for me and the difference in prices of Steam games on sale vs Mac App Store is massive like a 95% discount. Also games I've bought on MAS haven't been updated for newer macOS releases whereas the Steam games on Windows on VM just keep running.
 
While this is true for virtualization, it's not true for emulation, which would be admittedly a big step down in performance. But is is likely possible. Macs were running Windows on VirtualPC emulation software long before Intel chips.
"Running" is a very generous description: I'd say more like crawling if my nightmares of trying to get Windows 95 to run on VirtualPC are not clouded by time :)

I'd expect emulation to be significantly faster on Apple Silicon than it was in the bad old days, but it's still going to be a way off in performance compared to virtualisation.

Personally, my plan is to significantly remove our reliance on Windows over the next 3 years so when the time comes for our next upgrades, I can jump on AS and not worry about having to run virtual machines.

Microsoft are actually helping with that due to .net core and Visual Studio for Mac (which continues to improve): We have a lot of .net on Windows customers (which is why I currently need to run VMs) and the plan is to migrate as many of them as possible over to .net core over the next 3 years so the platform isn't so important.

Of course, this plan does require Microsoft to release .net core on Arm for MacOS, but hopefully that won't be an issue!
 
Anyone can download the file? I clicked the "Manually Download" button, using Mac Safari, Mac Edge, and Windows Edge, Windows Internet Explorer, still no luck
 
I'd imagine performance can be affected by what hardware you're running on, how much RAM, discrete or integrated GPU and so on. I've found VMWare running Windows 10 to be able to run Office365 just as smoothly as on Bootcamp. Being able to run macOS and Windows 10 side by side has its benefits for some. Some Windows Office365 apps/features aren't available on the macOS version. Even gaming with older titles on VMWare they run just as well as Bootcamp for me and the difference in prices of Steam games on sale vs Mac App Store is massive like a 95% discount. Also games I've bought on MAS haven't been updated for newer macOS releases whereas the Steam games on Windows on VM just keep running.

True but I am running Microsoft Flight simulator 2020 and soon Star Wars squadrons with a hook up to Oculus Quest VR glasses, so I need a lot more power. I am selling my last year Oculus Quest VR glasses and getting the Oculus Quest 2 glass which are coming soon it looks like they will have 4k and 120hz refresh which should make this games super fast.
I use a MacBook Pro 16 32gb of ram and 2TB SSD of storage with a Razer X EGPU and a AMD Radeon Vega 64 gaming card.
 
This is not true anymore. They have full Windows 10, including x86 software support, on ARM now. The limited ARM version of Windows was discontinued.

No. I'll admit I exaggerated by saying it'll only run MS Office but Windows on ARM is still very much limited. While it has made good strides in emulating the older 32 bit x86 ISA, x86-64, the standard for high performance apps for the past 15 years is still not supported and from what I understand performance even for 32 bit apps is nowhere near Rosetta 2 on MacOS. Even if we assume X86-64 support comes in 2021, the performance of virtualized Windows ARM emulating x86 is likely to be insufficient or at the very least unsatisfactory for many people used to virtualization on Intel Macs.

The point I wanted to make isn't that Windows will never, in any form, run on Apple Silicon Macs (It'll run in some form at some point.) It was that people need to get it into their heads that the era of virtualization & bootcamp as easy, low hassle, high performance solutions for non Mac apps is ending, and while I'm sure (hope) Apple Silicon will have its upsides, this isn't going to be one of them.

While this is true for virtualization, it's not true for emulation, which would be admittedly a big step down in performance. But is is likely possible. Macs were running Windows on VirtualPC emulation software long before Intel chips.
Yes I'm aware of emulation (I'm actually kind of an emulation enthusiast truth be told.)
In fact, I used to use VirtualPC and there's probably still some old copies of VirtualPC lying around in my parents attic somewhere. Which is why I have to ask, have you ever actually used VirtualPC on a PowerPC based Mac? Because it wasn't exactly a great experience. Useable in a pinch for the most basic of things? Sure. Something to rely on for high performance (or even mildly taxing) applications? Absolutely not.
It was so bad that for a while there were actually PCI add on cards you could buy that had a whole PC on them (Orange Micro made them I believe) just so you could run Windows applications in MacOS at reasonable speeds.

Obviously emulation today is far more advanced, and we have the benefit of both Apple and Microsoft invested in x86->ARM emulation/binary translation/etc succeeding. Still, anyone contemplating a first (or even second) generation Apple Silicon Mac needs to understand the reality that the good old days of just popping open a VM to run Windows software on their Mac or rebooting into Windows via Bootcamp are over (for Apple Silicon Mac owners). If Windows applications are important/mission critical/something they really want an Apple Silicon based Mac is probably not for them at this time.
 
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Does anyone else need to input a company for registering with the Player license? I'm not sure why you would need to considering its meant for personal use.
 
Other solutions usually have better DirectX integration and better seemless mode. VBox is a bit of a clunker in some of those areas, and it also has the Fisher Price UI still.

but in say.... running a browser like Firefox or whatever, is it obviously faster, or does it feel about the same?
 
I am trying over and over, not succeeding in downloading the free version, what a crap site.
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Does anyone else need to input a company for registering with the Player license? I'm not sure why you would need to considering its meant for personal use.

Just fill out N.A. or None, I did.
 
I've been doing some good hard thinking over the past several years on the topic of running multiple operating system and apple's direction with the Mac. I have to say for many years (since the 80's) Apple computers have served me well, and taught me how to use and appreciate computers.

When I first started with the Mac, it was the best solution for people with visual impairments and certain other disabilities. With time Apple has really done a good job in keeping up their accessibility options, and I still love the mac today. However, it's no longer the 80's and 90's, or even the early 2000's where computers and computer operating systems were a new things. Now there are a lot of good options, depending on what the person needs and wants. I prefer the mac, because it's what I'm used to, and what I've invested in for many years. However, after buying my late 2015 iMac in the beginning of 2017, I realized, that if I'm going to put that much money into a computer, I want to at least to have the option of maintaining the hardware, and even having a choice of OS to put on it. So while I'm happy with Apple mobile such as the iPhone, iPad, etc: I have considered building my own computer next time around. This isn't to say I've suddenly started to hate the mac, far from it. I just realize that while it's what I prefer other options have gotten good enough that I'm not stuck having to use a Mac all the time.

I've also been doing some transitioning along with apple. My back burner plan from the beginning, to use Mac OS X to learn UNIX, so if I decided to change. I would have learned Unix in the familiar Mac environment, and then could go to a version of BSD, or Linux, or any other Unix OS without as big of a learning curve. I feel in many ways having used the Mac OS, keeping up with the other Unix , Linux systems to a degree I've reached my goal, I'm just not sure when I want to switch. I've always just left it at, I'll use a Mac until this one dies, then change. I've even considered running Windows 10, i've used it for a few years in a VM, and even on an older PC, and have no real gripes with it.
 
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can someone explain to me why the paid VMs are so much better than VBox?

I've been running VBox for years and it's fine. Why should I pay?
There is a free perpetual license option available for personal use now btw.
 
Would VMWare provide a patch for older Fusion (I'm still on 8.5.10) to work under Big Sur? I didn't feel the need to upgrade Fusion over the past few years with MacOS upgrades and am a little bummed that I have to for Big Sur.
There is a free perpetual license option available for personal use now btw.
 
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Golly the VMWare website is trash. I followed the link in this article and registered for the free version. In the next screen I tried to download it and the download link didn't do anything. I made the mistake of closing that page without copying the license key. After a bunch of digging around on their website I finally found a working download link and installed the app.

Then I tried to find the license key again. There are so damn many different ways to get lost on their website trying to do that. Clicking the link in the installer just got me a blank web page. I eventually went into Safari preferences and deleted all the vmware.com data and started over. I followed the link in this article, logged in, and it took me right to the license key.

How anyone can regularly interact with that website and not lose their mind is a mystery to me.
 
So if I’m going to be moving from Parallels to Fusion, would it over all be better and cleaner to make a new, clean Windows XP VM, or just convert my existing one?

so looking forward to not having to pay $100 a year updating two licenses for two Macs just to keep my VM’s working properly on the newest macOS release...
 
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