Review by Jaewoo Kim

Edit: I would like to downgrade this product to two stars. Please read my addendum in the last paragraph below.

I run VMWARE Fusion 2.0 on my latest MacBook Pro (2.8Ghz, 4GB RAM, 512MB Graphics RAM, 7200RPM drive). I run the Mac OS Leopard and the Vista Business edition (SP2) on a BootCamp partition.

This is an excellent virtual machine software that has been expertly programmed. But to run it properly, you need a robust hardware (preferably the latest iMac or Mac Pro) and a LOT of RAM (I would NOT run VMWARE on a machine with fewer than 4GB of RAM). This software is ideal for a hardware with Quad Core processors (most intel chips, including my MacBook Pro, have only a dual core) with 8GB of RAM. The overall performance of this software on my latest MacBook Pro was barely satisfactory and sluggish. Fortunately, the kind of hardware required to run BOTH the Mac OS and Windows CONCURRENTLY with excellent performance will be common (and fairly cheap) in 2-3 years from now. If you must run both OS and run them well, then I recommend you get the best and the latest hardware at your disposal (Quad core + 8GB RAM).

Pros:n1)VMWARE Fusion 2.0 automatically detected my Vista BootCamp partition and there was no additional configuration neccessary. It also gave me the option of transporting the entire Bootcamp into a virtual machine, BUT that would destroy the dual boot (without using VMWARE) capabilities of my MacBook Pro, which I chose not to do. If you are already using BootCamp, the VMWARE Fusion will logically start the BootCamp Windows instance by default. Please note, as long as you do not transport the BootCamp into virtual machine, you can still dual boot your Mac in either OS.

2)I could run the entire Windows Vista as a separte virtual machine (separate OS instance) on OS X Leopard. I can view Vista either in a window or in a full screen size as if I am running only Windows Vista on a Mac.

3)I can choose to view only the active Vista applications running. The Windows applications will look as if the application is running on OS X Leopard. This is one of the coolest feature of VMWARE Fusion. The Vista application still runs on top of Vista so the Vista still must be started (booted) within the VMWARE first.

4)The VMWARE Fusion is very easy to use. But it helps a lot to be computer savy.

Cons:n1)You will need a robust hardware. You simply can’t run two hardware hogging OS (yes OS X Leopard is a hardware hog too) simultaneously with a whimpy hardware.

2)Depending on the hardware, you will need to make some minor adjustments. VMWARE Fusion, by default, only allocates 1GB of RAM to Windows, and that is way too little. You should try to allocate 2GB of RAM (assuming you have 4GB) to VMWARE Windows. In my opinion, you should not run VMWARE Fusion, or other competing products, unless you have a minimum of 4GB of RAM.

3)Running two OS simultaneously using VMWARE Fusion may cause your CPU and Memory to operate at or near its maximum capacity. This may cause overheating of your Mac. Futhermore, any application (either in Mac or in Windows) which is a resource hog will be noticeably slowed down and perhaps even be unusable.

Apple (Snow Leopard) and Microsoft (Windows 7) will be releasing far more efficient versions of their OS in the next coming months in 2009. Futhermore, the hardware will also become far more powerful. These two trends will allow users to run BOTH the MAC OS and Windows concurrently, utilizing VMWARE Fusion, with excellent performance in both operating system environments in the coming 2-3 years.

Addendum:nnVMWARE has had some very unfortunate and deliberate side effects to my BootCamp Vista partition. It appears most of the troubles are related in VMWARE’s deliberate attempt to nullify the utility of BootCamp partition. Unfortunately, the usage of VMWARE has led me to take on the arduous task of reinstalling Windows Vista using Bootcamp for the following reasons:nn1)The installation of VMWARE Tools has completely disabled games that use Direct X Windows graphics technology. After you install VMWARE tools, you will no longer be able to play Windows video games when you boot your Mac using Windows. Worst of all, there is no easy way to undo the damage of VMWARE on Vista. I uninstalled all services and programs related to VMWARE on Vista (including VMWARE tools) and that did not resolve the issues.

2)VMWARE has completely disabled Windows Media player capabilities on my Vista. Again, there is no way to undo the damage (I am sure there is a hack but who wants to hack it?).

Now, I would like to recommend against this product. Please use this product ONLY if you do not plan to use Windows for games or as a media player on the BootCamp partition.