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VMWare Fusion

Release: VMware Fusion 4

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VMware today announced VMware Fusion 4, the “best way to run Windows on a Mac”.

Available now for a promotional price of $49.99, VMware Fusion 4 makes it easy for users to run Windows applications on a Mac.

Fusion 4 has more than 90 new features and is optimized for today’s multi-core Macs and OS X Lion.

VMware Fusion 4 now supports OS X Lion in a virtual machine, allowing users to get more from their Mac by running OS X Lion, OS X Lion Server, Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server and Mac OS X Leopard Server in virtual machines.

The suggested retail price for VMware Fusion 4 is $79.99. Customers who have purchased VMware Fusion 3 on or after July 20, 2011 are eligible for an electronic upgrade to VMware Fusion 4 at no additional cost.

VMware Fusion box products will be available at key resellers including Apple, Apple.com, Amazon.com, Best Buy, Fry’s Electronics and many other stores in the coming days. VMware Fusion is available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Simplified Chinese and Japanese.

VMware Updates Fusion

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The latest update for VMware Fusion is now available and includes support for some of the latest operating systems: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and, for Linux fans, Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.04.

VMware Fusion 3.1.3 is a maintenance release that resolves some known issues and includes improved functionality.

It is a free upgrade for all VMware Fusion 3.x users.

To download the free update start VMware Fusion, select the “VMware Fusion” menu and click on “Check for Updates.”

VMware Releases Fusion 2.0.5

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VMware Fusion 2.0.5 is a maintenance release of VMware Fusion 2.

It is a free upgrade for all VMware Fusion 1 and VMware Fusion 2 customers, and provides the following enhancements:

  • Supports Mac OS X Server guest operating systems on Macs with Intel Xeon 5500 and 3500 Series processors (based on Nehalem micro-architecture)
  • Provides experimental support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server as a guest operating system (32-bit only)
  • Provides experimental support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard as a host operating system (32-bit only)
  • Supports Ubuntu 9.04 as a guest operating system, including features such as VMware Tools pre-built modules and Easy Install
  • Reduces CPU usage when a virtual machine is idle under VMware Fusion
  • Contains fixes for more than 80 bugs

You can download VMware Fusion 2.0.5 now.

Parallels Readying Attack on VMware Fusion With Desktop 4

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AppleInsider has taken a close look at a few features of the upcoming Parallels Desktop 4, which will be Parallels’ answer to the latest release of VMware Fusion 2.0.

“Those aware of the changes say the new release will be Parallels’ first to make good on promise made in early January that it would enable virtualization of Mac OS X Server on Macs already running the operating system, making use of a change in licensing terms with Leopard’s release late last year that permits more than one copy to run at the same time.

Such features have been frequently requested by IT administrators, who on Linux and Windows have already been able to segregate individual apps away from the main operating system in the event of a crash or a security breach.”

Ars Technica adds:

“Desktop 4’s performance will also be beefed up by adding DirectX 9 and OpenGL 2 support, an improved virtualization engine, and support for multiple cores and more RAM.

A makeover for the new version of Parallels Desktop is also in the cards, including a redesigned and simplified interface and more Terminal-based controls. In addition, the team is working on improving the ACPI interface (used for shutdowns and sleeping), and should be adding virtual machine resizing and 64-bit support. Based on those features, the software shouldn’t have a hard time catching up to Fusion, but I hope the team has something else waiting in the wings.”

Parallels

VMware Fusion Helped CERN Not Destroy The World With Large Hardron Collider Project

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VMware has announced physicists at CERN, the legendary European Organization for Nuclear Research and the world’s leading laboratory for particle physics, use VMware Fusion to share Linux-based computer code via VMware virtual machines running on Apple hardware.

Virtual machines created with VMware Fusion are used by the physicists working on the experiments that run on the world’s largest particle accelerator, Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC is the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, producing beams seven times more energetic than any previous machine and around 30 times more intense when it reaches design performance. Housed in a 27-kilometre tunnel, the LHC has operating temperature of 1.9 degrees above absolute zero (-271°C). By studying collisions at higher energies than ever before, physicists will make further progress in understanding the mysteries of how our Universe is made and how it came to be.

With VMware Fusion, physicists use Macintosh hardware to run Linux-based software which links to LHC Computing Grid – a network of more than 150 computing centres with approximately 40,000 CPUs, handling 15 petabytes of new data each year. This Grid, which provides computing power for some of the organization’s most advanced experiments, can be accessed from CernVM, a customized Linux operating system running in a lightweight VMware virtual machine deployed on a range of PC and Mac workstations and laptops.

Release: VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 2

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VMware introduced their latest Beta build of their Apple Mac virtualization product, VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 2, nearly three months after releasing the Beta 1 build. The new release is focused on several key areas, mainly to improve the user experience with updated video, data protection and Unity capabilities.

VMware Fusion 2.0 will be made available free to owners of VMware Fusion 1.x.

A rundown of the new features:

  • Multiple Snapshots
    • Save your virtual machine in any number of states, and return to those states at any time
    • Automatically take snapshots at regular intervals with AutoProtect
  • File and URL Sharing
    • Share applications between your Mac and your virtual machines
    • Finder can now open your Mac’s files directly in Windows applications like Microsoft Word and Windows Media Player
    • VMware Fusion can configure virtual machines to open their files in Mac applications like Preview and iTunes
    • Click on a URL in a virtual machine and open it in your favorite Mac browser, or configure your Mac to open its links in a virtual machine
    • Map key folders in Windows Vista and Windows XP (Desktop, My Documents, My Music, My Pictures) to their corresponding Mac folders (Desktop, Documents, Music, and Pictures)
    • Greatly improved reliability of shared folders—now compatible with Microsoft Office and Visual Studio
  • Experimental Support for Mac OS X Server Virtual Machines
    • You can create Mac OS X Server 10.5 virtual machines (experimental support). Due to Apple licensing restrictions, the standard edition of Mac OS X 10.5 is not supported in a virtual machine
  • Display Improvement
    • Improved 3D support
    • Use 1080p full high definition video in Windows XP or Windows Vista
    • Freely resize your virtual machine?s window and enter and exit Full Screen view while playing games
    • Run Linux applications directly on your Mac?s desktop under Unity view
  • UI Improvements
    • The New Virtual Machine Assistant has Linux Easy Install in addition to Windows Easy Install
    • Cut and paste files up to 4 MB, including graphics and styled text
    • Status icons glow when there is activity
    • A screen shot of the last suspended state of a virtual machine is displayed in Quick Look and Cover Flow
    • You can remap keyboard and mouse input
    • Keyboard compatibility between the Mac and the virtual machine is improved
    • The vmrun command line interface is available for scripting
  • Broader Hardware and Software Support
    • VMware Fusion supports Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron
    • VMware Fusion supports 64-bit Vista Boot Camp; handles activation for Microsoft Office 2003 and Office 2007
    • Experimental support for 4-way SMP (note: Windows Vista and Windows XP limit themselves to two CPUs)
  • Support for Virtual Hard Disks
    • You can mount the virtual disk of a powered-off Windows virtual machine using VMDKMounter (Mac OS X 10.5 or higher)
    • You now have the ability to resize virtual disks

Here’s a demo video the VMware team put out:

VMware

[Source: VMBlog]