VMware releases VMware Fusion 6 & Fusion 6 Professional with OS X Mavericks support
VMware on Wednesday released its latest virtualization software ? VMware Fusion 6 and Fusion 6 Professional ? with over 50 new features optimized to extend OS X features to Microsoft's Windows 8.1, including those of Apple's next-generation OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
VMware Fusion 6 and VMware Fusion 6 Professional are available now for $59.99 and $129.99, respectively.
"VMware Fusion 6 and Fusion 6 Professional spotlight our award-winning virtualization platform that we continue to upgrade with major enhancements and integration with the latest operating systems from Apple and Microsoft," said Jason Joel, VMware's director of personal products. "For enterprises with a heterogeneous computing environment with both Macs and PCs, Fusion 6 Professional takes deploying corporate desktops to a whole new level with enhanced restrictions and virtual machine expirations, giving IT admins the right tools to deal with BYOPC trends while ensuring corporate compliance."
VMware Fusion 6 includes the following new features:
VMware also launched Fusion 6 Professional on Wednesday, which includes all the features of the consumer version and adds advanced functionality aimed at enterprise applications. VMware Fusion 6 Professional includes:
Also launched this week was VMware Workstation 10, for professionals that rely on virtual machines. The new version adds support for Windows 8.1, USB 3.0 streams, SSD pass-through, and it has a new virtual SATA disk controller.
VMware Workstation 10 also includes support for virtual tablet sensors, such as accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, and ambient light sensor.
VMware Fusion 6 and VMware Fusion 6 Professional are available now for $59.99 and $129.99, respectively.
"VMware Fusion 6 and Fusion 6 Professional spotlight our award-winning virtualization platform that we continue to upgrade with major enhancements and integration with the latest operating systems from Apple and Microsoft," said Jason Joel, VMware's director of personal products. "For enterprises with a heterogeneous computing environment with both Macs and PCs, Fusion 6 Professional takes deploying corporate desktops to a whole new level with enhanced restrictions and virtual machine expirations, giving IT admins the right tools to deal with BYOPC trends while ensuring corporate compliance."
VMware Fusion 6 includes the following new features:
- Designed for Mac OS X Mavericks - Extend the unique features of Mavericks to a Windows environment, such as taking full advantage of every display connected to a Mac with multiple display support and enhanced dictation support in Windows applications.
- Ready for Windows 8.1 - Get the most out of Windows 8.1 by running Windows Store applications side-by-side with Mac applications. With VMware Fusion 6, users can access Windows Store applications in Launchpad or the Applications folder and put them in the Dock in Unity mode.
- Optimized for the Latest Macs - VMware Fusion 6 is optimized for the latest Macs taking advantage of Intel's latest Haswell processors for even better battery life and even faster performance when running Windows applications.
- Create the Most Powerful Virtual Machines - Create virtual machines with support for up to 16 vCPUs, 8 TB virtual disks, and up to 64 GB of memory to run the most demanding Windows applications on a Mac.
- Enhanced User Interface - From its streamlined user experience and improved PC migration assistant, to easier installation of Windows and more granular selection of computer resources, everything has been enhanced to give users an even better way to run Windows on a Mac.
VMware also launched Fusion 6 Professional on Wednesday, which includes all the features of the consumer version and adds advanced functionality aimed at enterprise applications. VMware Fusion 6 Professional includes:
- Enhanced Restricted Virtual Machines - Fusion 6 Professional enhances restricted virtual machines by adding more customizable restrictions that provide IT administrators with even more control over deployments of corporate desktops.
- Expiring Virtual Machines - With the ability to expire virtual machines at a specific date and time, VMware Fusion 6 Professional enables deployment of corporate virtual machines to contractors and allows software developers to easily deliver demos of their software as a time-limited virtual appliance.
- Single Virtual Machine Mode - Easily prevent users from creating new virtual machines or accessing specific application features, to reduce support calls and increase productivity.
- Linked Clones - Linked clones allow users to create multiple copies of a virtual machine without duplicating the entire contents of the original disk saving considerable space on their Mac.
- BYOPC with VMware Player 6 Plus - VMware Fusion 6 Professional is licensed to customers to use VMware Player 6 Plus to run restricted virtual machines created by VMware Fusion 6 Professional on Windows and Linux PCs.
Also launched this week was VMware Workstation 10, for professionals that rely on virtual machines. The new version adds support for Windows 8.1, USB 3.0 streams, SSD pass-through, and it has a new virtual SATA disk controller.
VMware Workstation 10 also includes support for virtual tablet sensors, such as accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, and ambient light sensor.
Comments
VMware Fusion 6 and VMware Fusion 6 Professional are available now for $59.99 and $129.99, respectively.
A $70 difference? Pro version is 2x+ more? Not good.
I would think most people interested in this already have VMWare 5 so the upgrade prices are the main thing. My only comment is those of us that paid for upgrades from 4 to 5 should get a better break than those upgrading from 4. I must say, being only $20 more for pro seems very good.
VMware Fusion 6 and VMware Fusion 6 Professional are available now for $59.99 and $129.99, respectively.
A $70 difference? Pro version is 2x+ more? Not good.
Honestly, the Pro version is targeted at a pretty small subset of users; mainly large corporate IT departments who are deploying VM's to users. Those features (except for linked clones) are things that wouldn't even appeal to regular users. So, I think the cost for Pro is reasonable.
However, I will say that as someone who relies on VMware daily, I wished the 'linked clones' feature was included in the regular version.
The Pro version offers the ability to create a master VM and base other VMs on this, thus saving space. For this feature only I purchased the upgrade from version 5 to 6 Pro.
Agreed, that is clever clever indeed. Not sure Microsoft will like it but that's another story.
Seriously what has changed from Version 5 ? All I see is the boilerplate claims of "bigger, faster !". I've found that Fusion 5 works fine with the Mavericks developer previews. I don't see the point of an upgrade. I'm also disturbed that Parallels 9 has added some new useful features while VMware seems to be standing pat
"This year we put a '6' on the box."
Seriously what has changed from Version 5 ? All I see is the boilerplate claims of "bigger, faster !". I've found that Fusion 5 works fine with the Mavericks developer previews. I don't see the point of an upgrade. I'm also disturbed that Parallels 9 has added some new useful features while VMware seems to be standing pat
They have? I just got my invitation to buy Parallels 9 a week early with a list of new features, and all I really see is the same claims of being faster. Likewise as you've experienced, Parallels 8 has worked just fine with Mavericks and I'm not seeing a compelling reason to upgrade.
However, what I am seeing with VMWare is a compelling price… For $50 I can upgrade all three of my Macs to Fusion 6 while it would cost me $150 to upgrade my Macs to Parallels 9. I had some issues with Fusion back in v3.x (running a VM on an external drive was causing kernel panics), but I've got to imagine those have been resolved since then. I occasionally am given a VMWare VM to run on my Mac which has to be "transported" first to Parallels. It would be nice not to have to do that anymore… I'm tempted to switch.
I've had issues with 5 on newer iMacs and MBPs such as having to disable graphics acceleration because running a jvm under Windows 7 would bluescreen the guest. Network connectivity has been problematic with Mavericks - virtual interfaces becoming orphaned. This new version seems to have resolved both of those issues (so far).
I've had issues with 5 on newer iMacs and MBPs such as having to disable graphics acceleration because running a jvm under Windows 7 would bluescreen the guest. Network connectivity has been problematic with Mavericks - virtual interfaces becoming orphaned. This new version seems to have resolved both of those issues (so far).
We had that problem with v5 running on a rMBP. It's been resolved a few months ago. VMware has awesome support and kept up completely in the loop over that span of time, keeping us informed on the status of the jvm interferring with VMware.
If you haven't yet done it, upgrade your v5 to the most current v5 release. Our rMBP here at the office has been running just fine since the update came out.
Fixed that for ya
Requires to adjust the vmx file in the template though, in order to fit you needs. So it is a bit troublesome as it does not copy the settings from the base VM.
But it works the same way as in VMWareFusion 6 pro and also VMWare Workstation for Windows.
I had the same crash issues installing 6 over 5 - crash before I got the EULA dialog almost immediately upon load. I did http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1017838 ,restarted, then fresh installed 6 and it solved my issue. You will have to repopulate the Virtual Machine Library. Don't do Import on items that are not a Bootcamp partition. Just File --> Open.
I'd forgotten the rMBP fix, yep. It still persisted on the late 2012 27" iMac hardware. Fortunately I had several platforms to fall back to other than the iMac. I'm very happy with their support.