VMware announces VMware Fusion 3 details

VMware has announced that VMware Fusion 3, the next major release of its virtualization solution for running Windows, Linux, and other operating systems on Intel-powered Macs, will ship on October 27. The new version ($80, with an upgrade available for $40) promises more than 50 new features, including changes designed to make it run well in Snow Leopard. The virtualization engine in Fusion 3 is completely 64-bit native, and will run in 64-bit mode under both Leopard and Snow Leopard for users of 64-bit-CPU-equipped Macs.

Fusion 3 also offers greatly improved graphics support, including support for OpenGL 2.1 and DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3. For the first time in Fusion, users will be able to use the “Aero” visual effects in both Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

Users of physical Windows machines looking to move to Fusion 3 on the Mac will find the task has been greatly simplified. A small program on the physical PC is first run, which generates a four-digit code. Users then move to the Mac and run the migration assistant, which will ask for the four-digit code. After providing the code, the Mac will find the physical Windows PC, and set up an identical virtual machine—all without any user intervention.

Fusion Unity mode—whereby the Windows desktop is hidden and Windows applications and windows appear alongside those of OS X—has also been improved over its predecessor. Users will be able to switch between windows of a Windows application using Command-`, as they can in OS X. Windows application icons in the Dock will show a list of open windows when clicked, just like OS X applications in the Dock. You can even use Dock Exposé in Snow Leopard to show just the windows associated with a particular Windows application. Finally, a new Fusion menu bar icon provides access to the items in the Start Menu and on the Task Bar, along with some other often-used tasks.

VMware has worked toward improved performance throughout the application, reducing memory usage where possible and adding small refinements. Dragging windows in Unity mode will be notably faster than before, and CPU usage is lower than it was previously. Users will be able to copy and paste not just text but graphics as well between Windows and OS X. Fusion 3 will support multiple cores in virtual machines, as opposed to the multiple CPUs supported in Fusion 2. Virtual machines will also launch more quickly than they did in Fusion 2.

On the front end, the new virtual machine library overview window loads faster, and shows real time views of your virtual machines—even if its windows are hidden or it’s running in Unity mode. A new simplified interface makes it easier for users to create new virtual machines and handle other routine tasks. Finally, application updates are built right into the program, so users won’t need to visit the web site to download updates.

For those who need technical support, Fusion 3 will offer 18 months of free e-mail tech support (up from 30 days for the current product), as well as the option of $29 per incident phone support—a service option that wasn’t available at all with Fusion 2.

Users can pre-order the full $80 version of VMware Fusion 3 from VMware’s site, the Apple Online Store, and Amazon.com starting Tuesday. Upgrades from prior versions will be available for $40 on October 27 at vmware.com, as well as at all authorized resellers.

News source: Macworld

Love the improvements to Unity, full 64-bit goodness, and improved 3D performance.

How does Fusion 3 compare to Parallels?

I've always thought Fusion was a better product than Parallels even since Fusion was in beta status. In my (very unscientific) tests, it seems to perform better than Parallels. It's also more "Mac-like" and less invasive to your system (though Parallels 5 is changing up how it operates to function in a very similar way).

Plus, it has a very large community and tons of "appliances" you can download to get ready-made VMs up and running in no time.

Parallels always felt bloated compared to VMware Fusion. Although I really like what they've done to v5's interface. Haven't seen screen shots of VMWare Fusion 3 yet.

Here you go:

So, is the NDA lifted? I've been beta testing this for awhile. It's rock solid. Been using it to run my Windows 7 install on my production laptop for the last few months.

Can you run glass with Unity (I'm guessing that's a no)

Judging from this screenshot, I don't think so. You can see that there's no glass around the Outlook window.

From what I know it switches back to basic in Unity mode.

Great that it now support Aero, that was really the only thing I missed. About time they added check for updates, not sure why it hadn't been there all along.

That one screenshot still shows Tiger shadows in leopard

You can use glass in Unity mode, but you wouldn't want to. It's still drawing what would be behind the glass on the Windows desktop, as that is all DWM is aware of.

Interesting. But totally excited for Aero

Well you could disable transparency.

"Found" a copy and been running it since last night. I can't believe how stable a beta build has been... Win7, Linux, etc. all work great.

For me, though, the single greatest improvement with VMware Fusion 3 is that when setting up a Linux virtual machine, it downloads and installs the VMware Tools BEFORE you actually install your Linux distro. That means as soon as it's installed and you can log in to your user account, the tools you need are already installed and running, which is a major time saver.

Just started using it. Very snappy, and the new Unity is very impressive. I like it a lot.

Why are they focusing on OS X when their main product is Workstation?

They should enable Aero on VMWare Workstation which have virtual machines that use a guest OS that supports Aero

VMware Workstation 7.0 will be out soon as well, which is going to support Aero in Vista/7 guests.

What is with you and the hate for developers that like to give equal attention to both Windows and OS X?

Fusion probably makes a lot of money for VMware considering there are a lot of switchers that, at first, think they still need to run some specific Windows apps. There are also people, like me, that use it to test things out in a Windows environment or in Windows only software (IE in particular).

Why shouldn't they if they're making good money by supporting the Mac platform? Like Elliott I fail to understand this attitude of yours.

The latest Workstation betas also support Aero. I don't see what the problem is.

For obvious reasons: no. Unity is meant to integrate the software in a vm with the OS X environment you're in. That would mean those Unity apps will have to behave the same way as the other apps in OS X. Therefore fancy stuff that only works in Windows won't work.


Fusion 2 introduced the Easy Install feature for Linux as well as Unity for Linux. In Fusion 1 those features were Windows only. The only new thing in Fusion 3 is downloading the VMware Tools if you don't have it on your machine. There is a plus side to this, they might sent out regular updates for their VMware Tools which would increase support for new operating systems (new Linux versions, new Linux distros, etc.).


VMware already had a product to do virtualisation on your computer with a lot of nifty stuff. The name of that piece of software is Workstation and it works on Windows and Linux. In that regard it's weird that they did not create Workstation for Mac which is exactly what Parallels did do with their workstation virtualisation software. However, OS X has a different interface and different guidelines when compared to Windows/Linux. In that regard it would be weird if they did port Workstation to the Mac. They could have ported it and made it fit in Apple's HIG so it looks and works like any other OS X app. They didn't, they created an entire new product from scratch with the problem that there are some differences between Fusion and the other products such as Workstation and Player (they did document how to overcome those differences).

Applications running in Unity are still fully supported by Windows running in VMware Fusion. There are probably no real technical reasons why they can't use Aero. However, like explained before Aero Glass windows would just display the background you would see on your Windows desktop, so it would look weird in Unity.

Got it up and running. Aero runs like crap so far, way too slow to be practical. I expected much better performance on a 2009 Mac Pro with an ATI Radeon HD 4870.

Linux VMTools still aren't as easy to install... tsk tsk tsk

Loving this version though! The latest parallels version felt so bloated I wanted to format my mac after installing it.

Well I gave it 2 GB of memory and access to 2 of the 4 CPU cores and Aero runs a bit smoother now. Still not picture perfect, but okay.

VMware Fusion 3 still isn't a 64-bit binary?!

Actually is

Just loaded up OS X 10.5 Server, it installs in less than 20 minutes when using a disk image as the DVD.

One thing that seems a bit funky is that OS X 10.6 Server throws an error 60 seconds into the DVD boot. I know the disk image is okay since I used it on my laptop.

Will load up Windows 7 later and test it out.

Can't get Fusion 3 to enable Aero on my Vista VM. Any top tips? I'm on a 8600mGT

I was testing the Beta of Fusion 3.0 and windows 7 ultimate 64bit with aero on worked.


make sure to update your VMware Tools on any old VM's

The GUI part of it isn't, but the actual VMX process (that does all the work) is.

Yeah I noticed that later on. Was in a bit of a hurry so didn't have the time to edit my reply.

Definitely liking VMware Fusion 3 so far. Tried Parallels 5, but it just feels so bloated in comparison.

Weird. OS X 10.6 Server installed just fine in VMware Fusion 3 for me.

Windows 7 runs really well though. Much faster than Fusion 2.

Aero Glass support is cool, but it is a little slow. Even with transparency turned off, it's still a little quicker to just use the Windows Classic theme. Will have to do some more testing.

And as a reminder, you have to purchase a new product key to use VMware Fusion 3. I had a key from the 2.x releases and it won't let me use it anymore.

Had to tell Vista to recheck my system and get a new experience score for Aero to be enabled. That was the trick.

With Transparency enable, the thing is dog slow (like trying to drag a window around a screen, but considering my 8600mGT is driving a 23inch screen in VMware, just being able to enable Aero is just blowing my mind lol). But turning off transparency and just using some Aero effects, its pretty usable. Will try Windows 7 when I get a chance. But definitely liking version 3. A pretty nice upgrade.

Got a very nice MacBook Pro yesterday and it didn't take long before I had installed Windows 7 on BootCamp. The product activated fine and still runs fine when running on bootcamp.

However, when I boot that bootcamp partition in VMware Fusion 3 Windows 7 complains about hardware changes and wants me to reactivate it, this then errors and it starts to ask me to buy a new key or phone up.

I understand VMware Tools provides the solution for this when running Vista. I have VMware Tools installed and it was still getting the error.

Anyone else had this problem with Windows 7? Or has a different solution for the problem?

Other than that, VMware Fusion 3 is fantastic!