VMWare Fusion Beta 4 is loose and in the wild as of 06/07/2007. We all know and recognize VMWare as the leader in the virtualization industry, so the following quote will come as no surprise.
Built from the ground up for the Mac, VMware Fusion leverages nearly a decade of virtualization expertise to harness the full power of your Mac hardware, while still supporting Windows-only applications, USB 2.0 devices, 64-bit, and accelerated 3D graphics.
Of course it also supports Linux, Solaris and a list of other operating systems. In addition you can download a ready-to-use virtual appliance from VMWare’s Virtual Appliance Marketplace that is pre-configured and ready to go. Just drop it in and start it up. Now this is where it get’s juicy!
Say goodbye to the Windows desktop Рseamlessly run Windows XP applications just like Mac applications; use Expos̩ to switch between any application, minimize to the Dock, bring forward only the application you care about, and use familiar Mac keyboard shortcuts. Use the VMware Fusion Launch Palette to easily access all your Windows applications, and keep your favorite Windows applications in the Dock.
VMWare has virtually (pun intended) blurred the lines between operating systems so that using applications between them is indistinguishable. They freed the applications from within the virtual machines into their host operating system. They can finally come out to play!
VMWare states that they are anticipating releasing version 1.0 of VMWare Fusion in the Summer of 2007. Guess that gives them a couple of months to tweak things a bit. All I have to say is… I really really really want a new Mac.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a YouTube video has got to be worth quite a bit more. So check this out and prepare to be absolutely friggin’ amazed.