VMWare Fusion public beta v Parallels Desktop beta 2

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VMWare Fusion public beta v Parallels Desktop beta 2

December 22, 2006 in Apple | Permalink

Logo_14 You'd expect software development to be rather quiet at this time of the year. Came in to the office this morning to find a press announcement for the first public beta of VMWare Fusion for Mac. This enables you to run Windows (and other operating systems) in a virtual environment on your Intel-based Apple Mac. It's also free, whilst in beta. You'll need an operating system, and you'll need to buy a copy of Windows XP SP 2, but an OEM version can be bought for around £50 these days.

To make this even more exciting, Parallels have just released beta 2 of their Parallels Desktop for Mac (build 3094). Both have support for USB 2 and Parallels now enables you to use your Bootcamp based partition, so you can now choose to boot through Bootcamp or use the same Bootcamp Windows XP installation through your Mac, via Parallels.

Logo_parallels Believe me, if you're an Intel Mac user, this is exciting. Recently I purchased a 20¨ Core 2 Duo Intel iMac from the Apple refurbished store (these go through a rigorous testing procedure) and Bootcamp makes the machine an ideal Windows XP machine. I still enjoy Mac OS X, so the new version of Parallels should enable me to use my Bootcamp installation through Mac OS X, from time to time.

If you have an Intel Mac or are considering a new PC (and wonder if an Intel Mac would be a good option), read about and/or download VMWare Fusion Mac beta or Parallels Desktop for Mac Update Beta 2.