VMWare Fusion 5

arty

arty

arty

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VMWare have just released VMWare Fusion 5. The headline features are:

1. Retina support
2. Better Windows 8 support
3. Better Mountain Lion support
4. 'Faster'
5. 'Better' battery life when using Fusion on laptops
6. New 'Professional' SKU including some slightly more enterprisey features

VMWare Fusion 4 users who bought the software on or after July 25th 2012 are eligible for a free upgrade; see here. Unfortunately, there is no longer the cheap (~£20) upgrade from 4 to 5 available, only a ~£40 upgrade from 4 to 5 Pro. Am I the only one who misses this? :(
 
I'll try this out later, see how it compares to Parallels, or rather, to see if there's any sort of 3D or video that works now. VMWare's comparison page is the worst one I've seen a company do, they reference one section of one review on it being 'faster' and their comparison table doesn't compare a single feature.
I'll try to run a few benchies.
 
I've just installed Fushion and pointed it to my Win7 bootcamp partition. Works great except the the Internet connection, which although fine in OS X keeps dropping out in VM.

Not ideal when using RDP to a customer's server. Been through the KBs and not found a solution yet but I have seen lots of posts about the same thing.
 
Currently using the 2012 preview (what V5 is), not in a rush to buy it atm.


Domo said:
I've just installed Fushion and pointed it to my Win7 bootcamp partition. Works great except the the Internet connection, which although fine in OS X keeps dropping out in VM.

Not ideal when using RDP to a customer's server. Been through the KBs and not found a solution yet but I have seen lots of posts about the same thing.
Click to expand...

What laptop?

I've been using it for years on my MBP and Mac Pro using 'Bridged' networks and it has never dropped a connection (I used to regularly transfer many GB's back and forth before starting this new job).
 
I'm using the new MBP Retina. Looks like my connectivity issues only occur while using my 3G dongle. At home on broadband it's been trouble free. And it's brilliant!

Might be worth pointing out, if you install Win7 using bootcamp then point VM to it, you have to activate Windows and Office again as the hardware appears different to the software.

Generally speaking I'm loving the fact I don't have to boot into Windows, and yet if I want to run Windows apps natively (e.g. games), I can. It's the best of both worlds.
 
Domo said:
Might be worth pointing out, if you install Win7 using bootcamp then point VM to it, you have to activate Windows and Office again as the hardware appears different to the software.
Click to expand...

Apologies if this is a noob question:
When you install Windows via bootcamp and point VMware to it, does it allow you equal access from both points? By which I mean, if I install an app while in VMWare or save a file to desktop, is the change seen when I boot into bootcamp as well (and vice versa)?
 
No apologies! :)
The answer is yes. When accessing Win7 via Fushion it's just the same as booting into Windows.

You're accessing the same OS and desktop (so long as you're using the same user of course).
 
Well, I bought it. Built like 12 servers in the last week and a half and it's such a solid piece of software I can't really complain, despite the lack of a decent upgrade path this time around. I think VMware know their strengths and charge what they want for them, sadly :)
 
Pro, at the reduced price. The so-called 'pro' features are not really of any value to me, but the bugfixes and retina support are.
 
arty said:
Pro, at the reduced price. The so-called 'pro' features are not really of any value to me, but the bugfixes and retina support are.
Click to expand...

Is this "reduced price" still available or was it just for pre ordering?

Do you not get bug fixes with Fusion 5 standard edition?

Just been looking at the comparison on the VMware site between 5 and 5 pro and cant see anything about bug fixes?

I wont need retina support as my mbp is not retina.

However, my requirements are to install multiple VM's, both client and server OS for my MCSA studies.

Just trying to work out if i just need 5 or 5 pro.
 
antc said:
Is this "reduced price" still available or was it just for pre ordering?

Do you not get bug fixes with Fusion 5 standard edition?

Just been looking at the comparison on the VMware site between 5 and 5 pro and cant see anything about bug fixes?

I wont need retina support as my mbp is not retina.

However, my requirements are to install multiple VM's, both client and server OS for my MCSA studies.

Just trying to work out if i just need 5 or 5 pro.
Click to expand...

Sorry, by 'bug fixes' I meant 'fixes for bugs in VMware Fusion 4' - which there have been several based on my own personal experiences.

Retina support is in all versions of 5.
 
arty said:
Sorry, by 'bug fixes' I meant 'fixes for bugs in VMware Fusion 4' - which there have been several based on my own personal experiences.

Retina support is in all versions of 5.
Click to expand...

Ok, cool, thanks. So would you recommend 5 or 5 pro for my use as stated above?
 
All my old VM's work fine except Ubuntu 12.04 x64. Although my Ubuntu 11.10 VM still works fine. Not sure what the problem is with the latest though.
 
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