Derrick
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- Nov 22, 2010
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An application that allows you to run another operating system within the Mac OS X environment.
Windows. Love it or hate it, but it's everywhere. And, even though you're a Mac user, you'll probably need it at some stage. I remember the good old days of running Windows on Apple computers. Back in 1998, I had a Power Macintosh 7200 PC Compatible. It was a Mac with a PC card, which means that it could run DOS or Windows alongside OS 8 (Apple's operating system at that time). I still think it's one of the best Macs I've ever used. I had the best of both worlds.
Nowadays you are spoilt for choice. You can use Apple’s Boot Camp to set up a dual-boot machine, or you can use virtualisation (and virtual machine) software such as CrossOver, Parallels Desktop, or VMware Fusion 2. VMware Fusion 2, developed by VMware Inc., allows Intel-based Macs to run x86 and x86-64 (64-bit) ‘guest’ operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows and Linux, as virtual machines on Mac OS X (the ‘host’ operating system), using a combination of virtualisation, emulation and dynamic recompilation.
Fusion is very straightforward to set up. Pop the installation disk into your Mac’s DVD drive; double-click on the installer in the disk image contained on the install disk, set up VMware Fusion 2, and you’re ready to create a virtual machine. You’ll need a Windows install disk if you plan to run Windows on your Mac. When you launch Fusion for the first time, you’ll be prompted to insert your Windows install disk. Once you’ve inserted your Windows Vista DVD, for example, you’ll be prompted to create a virtual machine. You can set the maximum size of the virtual disk you want to use for Vista, and opt to use your Home folder in OS X as a shared drive. This folder will appear as a mapped network drive in My Computer in Vista, making it easy to use your Home folder as the default location for saving files, pictures and media.
Once your virtual machine is set up, you launch VMware Fusion from within your Applications folder on your Mac. And then the fun begins. I’m one of those Mac users who believe that a Mac should be kept ‘pure’ – a Mac runs OS X Leopard and no other OS, and everything you can do on a PC, you can do on a Mac.
Some people call us fanboys; I call myself a Mac user. Just the thought of running Windows on a Mac makes me cringe. However, that’s me. If you need to run Windows and Windows applications on your Mac and you use Windows every day, or you’re a gamer, then Boot Camp is your best option. If you only have a few (say, two or three) Windows applications – Microsoft Access, maybe - you need to run on your Mac, then Fusion is for you.
Fusion is ‘fast’ (how fast it is depends on your hardware), easy to set up and easy to use. And it seamlessly integrates with OS X. You can drag and drop files between OS X and Windows, launch Windows applications from within OS X and much more. What makes Fusion even better is Unity. Unity ‘creates’ a seamless desktop environment between Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X applications, and you can opt to hide the virtual machine, letting you run Windows applications within their own windows. That means that you don’t have to see Windows running.
Windows. Love it or hate it, but it's everywhere. And, even though you're a Mac user, you'll probably need it at some stage. I remember the good old days of running Windows on Apple computers. Back in 1998, I had a Power Macintosh 7200 PC Compatible. It was a Mac with a PC card, which means that it could run DOS or Windows alongside OS 8 (Apple's operating system at that time). I still think it's one of the best Macs I've ever used. I had the best of both worlds.
Nowadays you are spoilt for choice. You can use Apple’s Boot Camp to set up a dual-boot machine, or you can use virtualisation (and virtual machine) software such as CrossOver, Parallels Desktop, or VMware Fusion 2. VMware Fusion 2, developed by VMware Inc., allows Intel-based Macs to run x86 and x86-64 (64-bit) ‘guest’ operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows and Linux, as virtual machines on Mac OS X (the ‘host’ operating system), using a combination of virtualisation, emulation and dynamic recompilation.
Fusion is very straightforward to set up. Pop the installation disk into your Mac’s DVD drive; double-click on the installer in the disk image contained on the install disk, set up VMware Fusion 2, and you’re ready to create a virtual machine. You’ll need a Windows install disk if you plan to run Windows on your Mac. When you launch Fusion for the first time, you’ll be prompted to insert your Windows install disk. Once you’ve inserted your Windows Vista DVD, for example, you’ll be prompted to create a virtual machine. You can set the maximum size of the virtual disk you want to use for Vista, and opt to use your Home folder in OS X as a shared drive. This folder will appear as a mapped network drive in My Computer in Vista, making it easy to use your Home folder as the default location for saving files, pictures and media.
Once your virtual machine is set up, you launch VMware Fusion from within your Applications folder on your Mac. And then the fun begins. I’m one of those Mac users who believe that a Mac should be kept ‘pure’ – a Mac runs OS X Leopard and no other OS, and everything you can do on a PC, you can do on a Mac.
Some people call us fanboys; I call myself a Mac user. Just the thought of running Windows on a Mac makes me cringe. However, that’s me. If you need to run Windows and Windows applications on your Mac and you use Windows every day, or you’re a gamer, then Boot Camp is your best option. If you only have a few (say, two or three) Windows applications – Microsoft Access, maybe - you need to run on your Mac, then Fusion is for you.
Fusion is ‘fast’ (how fast it is depends on your hardware), easy to set up and easy to use. And it seamlessly integrates with OS X. You can drag and drop files between OS X and Windows, launch Windows applications from within OS X and much more. What makes Fusion even better is Unity. Unity ‘creates’ a seamless desktop environment between Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X applications, and you can opt to hide the virtual machine, letting you run Windows applications within their own windows. That means that you don’t have to see Windows running.