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Fu - sion – noun the act or process of fusing; the state of being fused. A long time ago, early in my career I never would have imagined I would need or want to use anything beside Windows. I started out as a Windows Server and Network admin. I really had no aspirations or interest in learning other operating systems. Over time, that changed as our business was looking for alternative and innovative ways to do things.

Ever since, I have helped customers find alternative ways to do things and focused on interoperability, primarily in the desktop space. Before joining VMware, I worked for a company that ran zero Microsoft products, no Windows Operating Systems and no Windows or Windows based applications. The also were thin. They had over 38,000 thin clients deployed globally. Talk about Green. They were Green before Green was in.

I was there for six years and was exposed to every alternative imaginable. They had quite a few Macbook pro’s running around. I myself did not have one, but was always enamored by their design. I never really thought it was practical for me to use one.

I live in a VM, I have VDI in my office and work from a virtual XP desktop day to day. I use offline files and folder redirection for syncing between my VMware assigned laptop and my VDI desktop. When I came to VMware, I got the standard IT assigned laptop that was about good enough to run Word and Outlook. Trying to run all the VM’s I needed for testing and generating content, plus doing my day to day work when traveling just sucked. I could not stand it any more. I really needed something with a a little more RAM and more importantly something faster than a 4200 RPM drive. Between the pain of the IT assigned laptop, falling prey to the continued assault of MAC commercials and the day to day glow of the Fusion team. I started looking into getting a Macbook pro, as I knew Fusion would be the ticket too bring it all together. I waited and waited till the Santa Rosa systems shipped. Then a few weeks back, I officially broke down and got a Macbook Pro. I would not quite say I was a switcher yet. I really was only looking for a well designed machine that had enough power to do what I needed when traveling, doing demos, testing etc.

The plan was to run XP by moving my assigned laptop image over, piece of cake by the way using converter, built inside ACE 2. Then, I figured I would load Vista since I had not seen Aero and needed to do some VDI testing. I had been doing VDI testing and playing with the desktop environment. I like it, I think its sweet. I like the sidebar etc.Before I loaded Vista, I played with OS X a little and got familiar with Expose, the dashboard etc. I have never used a Mac and was getting my bearings. Finally, I loaded Vista in a boot camp partition. Well, Aero 3D flip was a disappointment, too me its just a 3D alt-tab. OS X expose, and the dashboard are much more appealing.

At the end of the day, I needed XP and Vista and OS X was growing on me. In steps Fusion after all, I had been dying to play with our unity feature. I am just
blown away, thus far it exceeds my expectations and really is exactly what I was hoping for, seamlessly integrates the desktop experience with Unity. It’s simple to switch between Unity or a full screen Windows desktop. I can create snapshots of my laptop image. I run can run my boot camp partitions as VM’s. USB device support. If you are considering switching but still need to hang on Fusion is the ticket. It is the ultimate interoperability tool.

Fusion

Fusion

Fusion

Fusion Unity View of my XP desktop. Each application is independent . See Outlook in the dock!
Fusion

Fusion

Fusion