As you know, I’ve been using VMWare Fusion on the Macbook for a few days to run Windows XP and a few apps I need for day to day work. Of course, I have tried a few other things on it and this is what I think so far.
Installation was easy, installing like every other Mac app out there.
Making the Virtual Machine was equally easy, if not a little time consuming. What it does it put a PC-like environment on your Mac. You ‘boot’ this PC, put in the Windows disc and it installs as if you were putting it on a hard drive. It’s not a normal WinXP install, more like an unattended install. VM knows the hardware running and installs the appropriate drivers for you.
Of course, once Windows is running, you still have to do all the normal things envolved with running Windows. Namely about an hours worth of updates and reboots from MS. But once that is done, it’s exactly like having Windows installed on your Mac.
You can run VM 3 different ways. Windowed (runs like any other app on the OSX desktop), Full screen (no dock or Menu bar, so it’s exactly like Windows) or Unity.
When running in Window mode, screen resolution automatically adjusts for the size of the screen you are using. I find this to be less than useful for doing anything more than command line functions or playing solitare. Also when running this way you loose a large bit of screen real estate to the VM menu bar that sits on top of the window, plus the status bar on the bottom.
When running in full screen mode, it is EXACTLY like being on a windows machine. The keys on a mac keyboard are automatically remapped to work like a Windows keyboard, you have full sound, access to the USB ports, CD ROM drive and iSight camera. In fact, this can throw you off a bit of you connect your camera and expect iPhoto to open, but get a Windows prompt instead. You can turn off the connectivity for the USB/CD/iSight, but default is everything connected.
The Mac also serves as DHCP server for the VM by default. You can also disable access to the network to the VM or you can set it up to use the Windows network stack in bridge mode with the Mac. All of these work perfectly.
Running Unity isn’t that great I’ve found. It is supposed to act as a Window layer that allows you to run Windows programs (actually, anything in the start menu) on the Mac.
As cool as this may sound or look, I have found it to be less than reliable. More than once the Mac gets confused, almost locks up, and then continues. It works, but not as well as full screen or windowed. One thing that is interesting is when you minimize a program, it goes to the dock, which is cool in the most un-natural of ways.
Overall performance so far is great. You are able to allocate as much or as little drive space an memory to the VM as you like. You can even specify 1 or 2 CPU cores, which is nice. I’m currently using 1GB of RAM, 15GB of drive space and 1 CPU. Honestly, it runs as good as it did on my Dell Inspiron, if not a little better.
I’m using the trial version right now, but after I run for a full week I would imagine I’ll go ahead and make the purchase. Once I do that, I’m thinking a Linux VM or 3 might be in order as well.
If you are in need of running Windows but really want a Mac, this is a great way to do it!
One Response to “VMWare Fusion Mini Review”
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August 19th, 2007 at 1:06 am
You’ll be happy to know, C|Net just did a comparo of VMWare Fusion and Parallels, and VMWare whomped up Parallels at performance. Iffin I wasn’t already in for sixty bucks, I’d switch to VMWare… Maybe next year.