VMware Fusion Tech Preview 2023 is now live

VMWare is much improved compared to what I tested last year with ARM Windows and Linux. @ChrisD. I remember giving you some feedback so happy to see things have improved.

I haven't tested Windows recently but a few weeks ago tried Linux and it worked quite well, still don't have the guest tools for ARM linux though, would be good to have these!
 
One thing I've always wanted was an easy-to-start virtual machine in headless mode so you only control it via the command line. I have not played around with vmrun yet so it might be possible there but it would be nice to have a "launch VM in background" option in the GUI.
 
mi9tchy said:
how's this compared to parallels?
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Not as polished as Parallels, especially with the visual stuff and general responsiveness, even more so at virtualising Linux than Windows, but has come a long way for the AS macs. Of course this one is free and does the basics well.

Definitely try this before buying Parallels.
 
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For anyone wanting to install Windows 11, you need the tools installed. During the installation, you can insert the Tools CD, then do Fn + Shift + F10 to get to the command prompt to launch the installer (d:\setup.exe). Then if necessary fn + option + tab to get the installer up.

Granted, no where near as fluid as Parallels as HACO mentions, but it works and should be as performant, if not more.
 
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I'd find it quite useful to be able to run a macOS 14 public beta VM as I'd like to play around with some of the new features when it comes to development. Can you just download the ISO from the Apple site? I've never run a macOS VM so not sure of the process.
 
HACO said:
Not as polished as Parallels, especially with the visual stuff and general responsiveness, even more so at virtualising Linux than Windows, but has come a long way for the AS macs. Of course this one is free and does the basics well.

Definitely try this before buying Parallels.
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is VMWare fusion free?
 
So just to be clear, VMWare Fusion, regardless of free or paid/pro versions cannot virtualise non-arm Windows? And one assumes this same limitation exists for Parallels as well because it's Apple Silicone M1/M2 instead of Intel?

Can you even game on ARM then? I mean just install Steam like you can on Intel/AMD Windows without limitation.
 
Feek said:
Nothing can virtualise non-arm Windows.

There may be ways to emulate it but emulation is far slower than virtualisation.
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Shaky ground, I'm pretty sure emulation of the x86 instruction set is also against the x86 license agreement still and its Implicitly mentioned In said agreement. I've always wondered how things like rosetta etc get around that but never looked to far into it.
 
Ali195 said:
Can you even game on ARM then? I mean just install Steam like you can on Intel/AMD Windows without limitation.
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Yes, you can. You can play native Apple Silicone games via Steam and other launchers, or using Rosetta you can play x86 games (with a performance penalty) using game launchers also.

If you want to play Windows only games, you'll get the best performance if they are ARM ready, or they would have to be emulated if not but again there's a performance penalty.
 
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Thankyou @Feek @ChrisD. May just leave my PC hooked up for the next year or so and see how it goes with Fusion or Parallels. Not that I really game on PC, was more editing, with a sneaky Witcher 3 install.
 
Vince said:
Shaky ground, I'm pretty sure emulation of the x86 instruction set is also against the x86 license agreement still and its Implicitly mentioned In said agreement. I've always wondered how things like rosetta etc get around that but never looked to far into it.
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No it's not shaky in any way. Emulating x86 on other architectures has been around for a long time and is perfectly fine. There have been open source emulators for decades, Microsoft does it on ARM Windows as well.

The M-series chips are somewhat different, Rosetta is software emulation but the chips have a hardware x86 memory ordering module, that's partly why Rosetta 2 works so well. Given that they've been out for almost 3 years and there haven't been any noise or legal challenge about this, they're either in the clear license wise or Apple may have acquired the appropriate license to build the memory ordering module.
 
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