VMware Fusion 3 Virtualization Solution Now Available

[netkas]

it sux

instead of normal opengl virtualization, they use gallium/mesa in xp, and s/w opengl via dx in vista/7 (limited to 1.4)

their directx implementation also sux, cant run any game tests in 3dmark05, but it says - full dx9 support, where it is then ?

also tried to run unigine tropics in guest win7 - no go also.

where is all they promised in release notes ?

 

[Winni]

it sux

instead of normal opengl virtualization, they use gallium/mesa in xp, and s/w opengl via dx in vista/7 (limited to 1.4)

their directx implementation also sux, cant run any game tests in 3dmark05, but it says - full dx9 support, where it is then ?

also tried to run unigine tropics in guest win7 - no go also.

where is all they promised in release notes ?

Answer yourself those two questions:

1. Do you have a Mac that is supported by VMWare for those features?
2. Have enabled the 3D acceleration for your virtual machine in the VM's configuration?

Besides, running games in a VM still is an insane idea. There is no hardware that is powerful enough for that on the desktop market.

 

[netkas]

Answer yourself those two questions:

1. Do you have a Mac that is supported by VMWare for those features?
2. Have enabled the 3D acceleration for your virtual machine in the VM's configuration?

Besides, running games in a VM still is an insane idea. There is no hardware that is powerful enough for that on the desktop market.

yes and yes

3d works in dxdiag, aero works in win7 guest.

I never say smth before checking it twice

 

[iLunar]

I always recommend doing both. Install Windows 7 via Boot Camp then VMware Fusion will use the Boot Camp partition as the virtual machine. That way you have the option of either Option-booting or going into the virtual machine.

Will this work with Windows Authentication? If I upgrade my BootCamp partition with Windows 7, activate it, can I then use Fusion in addition to dual-booting from the Bootcamp partition? Or will Windows 7 not authenticate?

 

[elppa]

I log in and get “Service not available”. Would like to try it as getting aero graphics is nice.

Will see what the other improvements are like in terms of performance before paying the upgrade fee. V. 2 works well enough for me at the moment, though I'm still running the RC of Win 7.

 

[UtahWJR]

I always recommend doing both. Install Windows 7 via Boot Camp then VMware Fusion will use the Boot Camp partition as the virtual machine. That way you have the option of either Option-booting or going into the virtual machine.

Will changes made in the Boot Camp partition - for example install some new software - automatically show up in the virtual machine when you do this?

 

[thecypher]

Trial download seems to be broken right now

 

[ChazUK]

I've been playing around with Vista on it today and like it so far. The worst part of my experience is that my Vista disc is the first release so it has all the pre service pack 1 issues. I posted some stuff about it at Futuremark

Time to try Ubuntu now!

 

[thederby]

Will changes made in the Boot Camp partition - for example install some new software - automatically show up in the virtual machine when you do this?

of course it will, it's the same OS installation.

 

[Ibjr]

Trial download seems to be broken right now

Doesn't matter, even if you got the dmg, you'd still be missing the trial key.

 

[Vanarak19]

having site issues it looks like. Im trying to get the academic upgrade price, and it keeps telling me my key is invalid, WTF

Also, there are a lot of pageouts going on their page right now. Grrrr

 

[hugodrax]

Trial download seems to be broken right now

I got it early enough. Its pretty big download.

 

[ChrisA]

One more question...can VMWare allow me to have 2 virtual machines running simultaneously?

Depends on how much RAM your Mac has. On my iMac I can run Both an XP and a Solaris VM at the same time but it gets slow.

At the Office I have an HP with dual Xeons. It runs Linux and then I have VMware on that. I run Win XP and Solaris both and it's fast. much faster than doing the same on the iMac.

So the answer is "It depends on your hardware."

 

[calicardiff]

having site issues it looks like. Im trying to get the academic upgrade price, and it keeps telling me my key is invalid, WTF

Also, there are a lot of pageouts going on their page right now. Grrrr

Yep, same here, keeps coming back with a cryptic error message after attempting to login, which takes a lonnnng time...

 

[orson3g]

I haven't tried Win 7 Pro in Parallels yet, but Fusion 3.0 sure is slow as hell on my MBP 2.66 with 4 GB of RAM. I gave Win 7 Pro 64 the dual core option and 2 GB of RAM but it's too slow to do anything. I even turned Aero off. I hope it's something at my end and not Fusion 3.0.

 

[orson3g]

Will this work with Windows Authentication? If I upgrade my BootCamp partition with Windows 7, activate it, can I then use Fusion in addition to dual-booting from the Bootcamp partition? Or will Windows 7 not authenticate?

Win 7 Pro 64 via Boot Camp partition through Fusion 3.0 works for me fwiw. I was not asked to authenticate.

 

[pavelbure]

Doesn't matter, even if you got the dmg, you'd still be missing the trial key.

yeah, that's where i am at now. no email at all.

on a related note, i'm sick of these companies not even testing the most basic of things anymore.

 

[DiamondGCoupe]

Does VM Fusion offer any real significant advantages to Parallels. I'm using MBA with XP on Parallels but would like to try VM Fusion but am I really gaining anything..?

 

[iLunar]

Win 7 Pro 64 via Boot Camp partition through Fusion 3.0 works for me fwiw. I was not asked to authenticate.

Did you upgrade first in your Bootcamp partition, then run VMWare?

 

[Saladinos]

No Aero on X3100 according to sys. reqs.

VMWare support for the X3100 is rubbish. Parallels at least has some hardware acceleration on it.

 

[Avro]

Actually their website and service is a bit of a joke. I have been using both VmWare Fusion and Fusion 2 for a few years. I updated my details and tried to order the upgrade to 3 and it wouldn't recognise my serial number, no email options and then spent the day on hold to customer service in the US and UK with no result. I tried again this evening and got an error page that thankfully gave me a link and have raised a ticket item. Might get it by the end of the week. Great software, but customer service stinks.

 

[orson3g]

Did you upgrade first in your Bootcamp partition, then run VMWare?

I didn't upgrade anything. Win 7 was already installed on my Boot Camp partition and then I installed VMWare from there if that is what you mean. As far as I know Windows is still authenticated.

 

[maflynn]

I'm downloading the trial right now, I'm a version 2 owner but I want to try it before I buy it.

Anyways can folks comment on three things.
1. Hows 3.0 when running pre-existing Linux VMs (Fedora11 & Ubuntu) There's some wording that when you install windows in a 3.0 VM you get lower overhead as opposed to upgrading the VM - I'm wondering if that's true for Linux too.

2. Does any one see a marked improvement when booting into K64 (64bit kernel) again the wording on vmware seems to indicate better performance.

3. If I don't use the Unity feature, are there any other advantages to 3.0. I'm not a fan of unity and I don't run windows - (Linux) and so I want to be sure that I'll see some benefits to upgrading.

 

[Michael73]

Depends on how much RAM your Mac has. On my iMac I can run Both an XP and a Solaris VM at the same time but it gets slow.

At the Office I have an HP with dual Xeons. It runs Linux and then I have VMware on that. I run Win XP and Solaris both and it's fast. much faster than doing the same on the iMac.

So the answer is "It depends on your hardware."

I don't know how much RAM your iMac has, but my MBP has 4GB and my MP has 12GB. I'm sure if it's RAM dependent everything will fly on the MP, but what about my MBP?

 

[Avro]

All I know is that their site refuses to let me purchase the $39.99 upgrade, even though my VMware Fusion is registered. It consistently comes back with "Our records indicate that you have no eligible registered products to upgrade. To complete your upgrade order, please register a compatible product."

I've been on hold with VMware for 20 minutes now waiting to talk to someone to straighten this out. VERY ANNOYING...

I am in the same situation. Been on hold all day (on US and UK site) and in spite of leaving messages, no phone calls. I eventually got to a place where I could contact them by email and I now have a ticket, but still no solution nor VM Fusion 3.