VMware Fusion - Windows on a Mac

13th May 2009

Now being a consultancy firm we can come across various operating systems so it is always good to have knowledge of as many as possible. Here at IT for Starters we run windows and Mac in the office to make sure we can support Microsoft/Apple and various flavours of Linux if required.

There will be a lifelong debate about which is better PC or Mac and I am not going to decide here but until Apple or Microsoft give-up on their Operating System (OS) the debate will continue to rage.

I feel the PC vs Mac argument can be like the meat eater vs the vegetarian. You have two extremes, those that won't eat meat and want everyone to be vegetarian and those that eat meat and won't listen to anything a vegetarian has to say. These generally give both sides a 'bad name' and for the majority that simply get on with their own lives and beliefs and want less fuss over the whole matter.

We have in the red corner the PC owner who won't touch a Mac and in the blue corner the Mac owner who hates everything PC. However, for those of us who can sit back and take an unbiased view (as I have always tried to do in anything in life) you will see that both have their place and both operating systems have their benefits and downfalls.

PC or Mac?

Now I am not going to answer this question here as it will clearly depend on the application it is being used for and the person who is using it, however for those that wish to run a Mac but can't or won't due to windows software they need to run then there is an answer VMware Fusion

 

VMware Fusion

Now having a Mac on the desk has it's benefits but I also need to run software written for Microsoft operating systems and I don't want to keep running an iMac and a laptop at the same time. So what can I do?...there is always Bootcamp on the Mac which allows me to dual boot with ease but I want to access both Windows and Mac OS at the same time and share files. Here is the easiest solution in my view to do this:

• Install VMware Fusion Trial
• Run Fusion and install your favourite Windows OS
• Run Windows as a Virtual Machine on the Mac

Sounds easy?...well in my recent test that was about it. VMware Fusion installed easily and having Windows 7 RC I had a free Microsoft Operating system to install and test the functionality of Fusion. Windows 7 installed well it happily shares all the hardware on the iMac and connects to the network drive and printers without any issues (so far anyway).

 

VMware Fusion Trial

If you want to test the software (and why wouldn't you, I am not expecting you to take my word for it) you can download the trial software and use it for 30 days to make sure it works well for you. I found it worked extremely well and allowed me to use Windows software on the Mac and allowed trouble shooting of helpdesk calls without having to physically switch machines.

 

As a result of the trial I purchased the full version and I am working happily on Windows 7 RC on the Mac as well as using the functionality of the Mac software I have invested in.

 

Windows software for those who want a Mac

I have various clients who wish to have a Mac but are tied into Windows because of the software they have invested in. This is fair and I have the same issue, having spent a lot of money on Adobe CS 4 Web Premium for developing web sites for Windows I am not prepared to buy it again for the Mac. Therefore I can now run the software on a Mac using the Windows 7 RC virtual machine. So for the cost of Fusion -£49 I have a free Microsoft OS (Windows 7 RC) running my software on the Mac without having to buy another copy of expensive software on the Mac

 

Migrate Windows to Mac the easy way

Having spoken to the business manager in the local Apple store he highlighted another great use for the product. You create a snapshot of the person's laptop/desktop and using Fusion on the Mac have the old laptop/desktop on the Mac as a Virtual machine. They have their old machine 'as it was' when they bought the Mac.

 

Conclusion

Well for me the installation of VMware Fusion was effortless and painless and installing a release candidate OS caused no problems for the software and it created a virtual machine running Windows 7 RC without any problems. Clearly I have only been running this for a couple of weeks and if I stumble across any issues I will update the blog with the problems and more importantly the fix.

 

So for those wanting to use a Mac but also run windows software without the hassle of rebooting the system every time then here is your answer "VMware Fusion"

 

Darren