Integrating with VMware Fusion's networking

Yesterday, the smart folks at GNS3 have added support for VMware Fusion's vmnet virtual network interfaces to their product.

It only required about 70 lines of code!

The best of both worlds, twice.

For a long time, VMware Fusion has been bringing you the best of both worlds: Mac and Windows.

And customers have weighed the pros and cons of VMware Fusion and its competitor Parallels Desktop. The thought of many users could be summarized as in this TekRevue article:

When it comes to features and performance, the two products have traded blows for several generations, but Parallels has often held the performance lead, especially when it comes to 3D graphics support, while Fusion has frequently been more stable, provided better battery life, and offered multi-platform VM compatibility with VMware’s Windows and Linux software.

However, the latest release of VMware Fusion changes this status quo. TekRevue conducted an extensive comparison of the latest versions of both products, and concluded:

If you look at our Parallels vs. Fusion benchmark results simply by the numbers, then Fusion 8 is the clear winner, taking 11 out of 18 tests and pushing on three more. ... Some users are looking for a virtualization app to play Windows-only games, or crunch data in a Windows-only CPU-intensive app. Those folks should probably go with Fusion 8 this year.

That is right, folks! VMware Fusion now gives you the best of both worlds, twice:

• Mac and Windows
• Stability and Performance

I fathered the VMware Fusion product, and with an extremely talented team, we have been improving it for 10 years now. I'm proud and excited to see that our efforts are finally starting to pay off!

Snow Leopard Update

If you want to run the latest seed build of Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard (at the time of this post) in a VMware Fusion 2.0.2 virtual machine, then read this VMware Fusion forum post.

twoOHtwo

VMware has released Fusion 2.0.2, a free upgrade for all Fusion users.

I contributed a few enhancements to that release:

Support for .dmg files as CD/DVD images

You can now use regular (unencrypted) .dmg files on your physical machine to install software in your virtual machines. You do not have to convert a .dmg file to a .iso/.cdr file, or burn the .dmg file to a physical CD/DVD anymore.

Support for Mac OS X Server 10.5.6 guests

In a previous post, I recommended you refrain from upgrading your virtual machines to Mac OS X Server 10.5.6. You can now safely do it.

Support for Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard guests

From searching the web, it appears that Apple has seeded at least 3 different builds of Snow Leopard:

1. 1. This one


2. 2. This one


3. 3. This one

I have verified that Fusion 2.0.2 works quite well with build #2 above, with the exception of Shared Folders (which are disabled).

But unfortunately Fusion 2.0.2 cannot boot build #3 above yet. So it seems that I have some more work to do for the next maintenance release of Fusion.

Mind the update

Apple released Mac OS X Server 10.5.6 today.

If you are using VMware Fusion 2.0 or 2.0.1, VMware recommends that you do not update your existing Mac OS X Server 10.5.x virtual machines to version 10.5.6 at this point. For details, hit this link.

The next maintenance release of VMware Fusion will take care of this issue.

Have a safe browse!

At the Black Hat USA 2008 conference, Alexander Sotirov (full disclosure: Alexander works for VMware, Inc.) presented a novel way to bypass the web browser's security mechanisms in Vista (slides, paper).

While this does not mean Vista's security is game over, it does highlight how important it is to run your browser in a virtual machine to protect yourself against any browser vulnerability.

VMware Fusion 2.0 makes it so easy for you that it is just not worth taking any risk: click on a web link on the host, and the web page automatically opens in a browser in a virtual machine (video, application for web developers).

The Cat Is In The Bag

Well, my precious is out, so now you too can play with True Leopard Server virtualization.

VMware Fusion 2.0 beta 2 supports running Mac OS X 10.5 Server inside a virtual machine on any decent Mac OS X version on the host:

• Latest Tiger
• Latest Leopard
• Even the latest Snow Leopard!

To help you avoid the quirks of this beta, and until we fix them, the Fusion team has created a document that describes how to get the best out of your Mac OS X Server virtual machine.

But VMware Fusion 2.0 beta 2 does not stop there. Here are the videos demonstrating its numerous new features, such as:

• Multiple snapshots
• DirectX 9 Shader Model 2 support
• Keyboard and mouse shortcuts mapping
• Improved host/guest integration
• Improved performance

We hope you will enjoy using it as much as we enjoyed making it!