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 enlarge | From: Smith Micro Software Inc.
Category: Software
List Price: $79.99
Buy New: $49.99
You Save: $30.00 (38%)
New (21) Used (3) from $45.00
Rating:  172 reviews
Sales Rank: 6
Format: Cd
Platforms: Mac Os X, Macintosh
Media: CD-ROM
Batteries Included: No
Operating System: Mac OS X
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.3 x 1.5
MPN: VMFUSMBX2
Model: VMFUSMBX2
UPC: 717103140372
EAN: 0717103140372
ASIN: B000UK3GVA
Release Date: August 20, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 VMFusion beats Parallels by a mile June 11, 2008
Morgan Mason (Outer Banks, NC)
As a Mac user, I have been very disappointed with the virtual machine provided by Parallels so I tried VM Fusion. What a difference! It is Mac native and it shows. The speed has improved by about 30% and so far, no crashes which is very Mac-like!
Does what it says on the box June 9, 2008
J. Mallinson (Chicago, IL)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's rather addicting to keep booting up Windows XP Pro and running it even when I don't need it. Being an old hand at Mac, I remember doing the same thing when running SoftWindows with Windows 3.1 on my Performa all the way back in 1996...
Yeah, this is nothing like that.
In terms of performance, I can't tell any difference between running this product on my iMac and working on a Windows PC. At my old job we used Parallels, and that ran great, too, but I can tell that this is faster. There are only two shortcomings of this product: the first is that I can't use any Firewire devices with the virtual machine (like Parallels), and the second is that it doesn't allow me to explore the virtual machine's files through the Mac's Finder (which Parallels can do). So, if I could, I'd actually rate this product four-and-a-half stars, but as neither of those factors are deal-breakers, they're not significant enough to me to take away from a five-star rating.
Excellent option for running Windows on your Intel Mac June 9, 2008
Welles Goodrich (Santa Cruz, CA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It is inevitable that any review would have to compare VMWare's Fusion and Parallels at least a bit. Both provide the capacity to partition your drive and install Windows rather seamlessly. I used Parallels until v. 2.5. The paid 3.0 upgrade 'broke' something on my Mac Pro and I could not get Windows to launch again. It was a known issue for some small subset of users but no fix was ever forthcoming. So I switched to Fusion.
At the time Fusion was just releasing a public beta and it didn't have nearly the feature set of Parallels but for me it worked without issues and my preferred use pattern didn't require any 'missing' features. It did eliminate a very important limitation of Parallels at the time which was limited to 1.5GB RAM and one core. With Fusion I could assign multiple cores and 4GB of RAM so my intended use of some Windows only 3D graphics programs and the additonal resources allowed by Fusion were needed. As time has gone on, with several updates to v.1 which both added features and provided fixes for issues discovered by users, Fusion is maturing into a solid and feature rich solution for Windows on Mac.
There is now a beta for v.2 beta 1 and it seems rock solid to me. Included features are true multiple display support, experimental support for DirectX 9.0 with Shader Model 2, virtual printing support, integrated import of Parallels Desktop, Virtual PC VMs and Boot Camp partitions. Version 2 will increase the utility of the program yet again with needed abilities and will be a free upgrade for registered users of v.1. Can't beat that!
The great value of Fusion is that I can launch Windows in one Space (on Leopard) in a Full Screen mode and have a complete, effectively native speed copy version of Windows available at the flick of my mouse. I'll leave it running for days with no memory leaks or any untoward behavior. The new version is probably the best option for gamers although, with a Mac Pro you could easily just install Windows on a different hard drive and have it run natively without the small performance hit of virtualization which is imperceptible to me.
Another aspect of the Fusion business model is support. The forums are very vital with a greater developer presence than I found on Parallels. Solutions for issues are almost always discovered. Yes, you should know if you get into any software that there might be 'issues.' I can enthusiastically endorse Fusion as I've only run into one small problem which was subsequently solved by an update within weeks. I run it on a Mac Pro and a second copy on my MacBook Pro and have a perfectly working solution for Windows on Mac even though I'm running the new beta. VMWare seems to develop with a little more attention to stability and feature bloat isn't preferred over solid utility. You can also download virtual machines of many Linux distros and Unix systems which are ready to go. Just download them and run them.
I thoroughly endorse Fusion based on my personal experience of some duration.
 Decent Product, Horrible Support June 6, 2008
Gregory A. Marshen
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Purchased this product to replace Parallels. I had some difficulty installing on my MAC and finally had to figure it out myself since their customer support is non existent! Basically they do not want to hear from you once you've purchased the product.
Great product for the Macbook June 4, 2008
Stephen M. Charme (Cranford, NJ United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
About 6 months ago I bought a Macbook, but still continued to run various Windows applications on my PC. Although Mac versions of some of these applications were available (such as for Quicken), I really did not want to have to pay for the same software twice; in addition, the Mac versions of Windows applications don't always work as well. So I resigned myself to switching between my two computers--until I discovered VMware Fusion.
I downloaded a 30 day trial version from the company's website, and was so impressed that I bought it from Amazon (cheaper than buying directly from the company).
Installation on my Macbook was painless and simple. Please note that besides this software, you also need a Windows installation disk since you are creating a virtual PC on your Mac.
Now I can install and use Quicken, Palm Desktop, Garmin Training Center and other Windows programs on my Mac with ease. I can have my virtual PC occupy a portion of the screen or the full screen. I can also have Windows applications sit in my dock if I want to. But usually I just minimize my Windows desktop to my dock and maximize it when I need it.
I bought this product rather than Parallels Desktop (which I have not tried) based on the reviews.
If you are looking for an effortless way to install and run Windows programs on your Mac, look no further. This software does the job nicely. It makes so much more sense to buy this single software program than to to start buying the Mac equivalent of Windows programs, especially since the Mac equivalent often does not work as well.
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