Upgrade to Fusion 11

[mjh48]

I am using an iMac mid 2011 running High Sierra. This machine does does not meet the tech requirements for OSX 10.14 (Mojave). Is there any significant reason for me to upgrade to Fusion 11 since some of the features (tech specs) require a newer machine (similar to the spec requirements for OSX 10.14)?

[wila]

Hi,

I take it you are still running Fusion 8.5.10 ?

For your hardware, Fusion 11 might still work (VMware Fusion? | FAQs installation), at least the installation requirements state:

The minimum system requirements for installing and using VMware Fusion 11 are:

  Apple Mac launched in 2011 or later*:

and your machine is not excluded in the * note below it.

Next issue is probably metal support, but you can disable that requirement like so:

Enabling legacy OpenGL support in Fusion 11

Of course not officially supported, but it should work.

Is it worthwhile?

That's a decision only you can make, but beware that Fusion products before version 10.x no longer gets security updates and that there are security issues with those older versions.

So it certainly is recommended to stay up to date.

My suggestion would be to install and run the 30 day time limited fully functional version before actually committing to spending anything.

After the 30 days, you buy a license to change the installed Fusion 11 into an unlimited version.

--

Wil

[mjh48]

I am using Fusion 10.1.3. So what advantage is there to upgrading to Fusion 11?

[wila]

Hi,

I think Mike says it best in his blog post introducing Fusion 11 here:

VMware Fusion 11 is here! - VMware Fusion Blog - VMware Blogs

So your hardware is no problem for running Fusion 11, it will run Fusion 11 as the hardware requirements to be able to install&run have not changed since Fusion 10.

The one thing I'm unsure about is if your GPU supports the Metal engine, the rest of the list should still be true, including running Mojave as a supported guest OS.

(Note that you can probably run Mojave on Fusion 10 as well, not sure if that will become supported over time)

--

Wil

[GlennyG]

I'm running version 7 on one machine and am struggling to find any real benefit in "upgrading".  My other machines are running 8.5 and I really can't see any significant new Fusion features.  Sorry,  but a UI tweak and touch bar support doesn't cut the mustard for splashing out on "the latest version".

And as for Mike's marketing blog...  gosh.  Almost surprised he didn't mention the shiny new logo as a benefit.

[ColoradoMarmot]

7 to 11 is a massive upgrade.  Vastly improved performance, much higher graphics levels, better cleanup capabilities.  And you haven't gotten security patches in years - those VM's shouldn't connect to the internet.

[GlennyG]

> VM's shouldn't connect to the internet.

They're not (except to update them).  They're just plain old VisualStudio dev machines with as much MS rubbish stripped out of them as possible - including anything to do with Office and anti virus scanning.  They're normally installed as either a private network or NAT through the Mac.  All 'internet' access is through the Mac's applications - browsers, mail, etc.

A lot of this client security stuff is FUD.  Spectre and Meltdown aren't any real concern for a VM running on a private host -- I say aren't a real concern;  the real concern is the loss of performance.

The main performance improvements are for graphics-intensive stuff which is never used in my Windos VMs (I don't play games, etc.)

There was a major performance improvement around version 5 but the last couple of updates have been quite minor.

Given that I've avoided updating to version 8/8.5 and 10 on one machine,  I've saved a couple of hundred dollars.  The other machines are running 8.5 for which I noticed absolutely no improvement in performance other than that from the Mac hardware upgrade.

As I said,  I'm really struggling to see any reason to "upgrade" to 11,  especially as the *free* Mojave update hasn't killed VMWare (feeding my suspicion that there's been few material updates).

Obviously it's my specific use case.  I'm sure other people's mileage will vary.

[ColoradoMarmot]

We'll disagree on FUD - I do this for a living, and see compromises on a continual basis - there's risks beyond just those two.

Just make sure you backup your VM's regularly (not time machine) 🙂

[mjh48]

What are the risks beyond those two? Merely stating there are is not helpful to understanding why one should upgrade.

[wila]

Hi,

There have been several vmware tools vulnerabilities.

See also:

https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-252/Vmware.html

--

Wil

[GlennyG]

I do make regular non-time machine backups to separate hard drives stored in different locations.  Mac's keep or overwrite feature's good for this.

After all of this,  I decided to shell out the $100+ and "upgrade".

Am EXTREMELY annoyed that the full screen mode's been broken.  It runs as a 'modal' screen so you can't put any Mac windows over the top of a full-screen Fusion window.  The other screen's blank too (yes,  I could select display in all screens).   But it's the modal feature which makes it unusable so I'm going to have to UPGRADE to 8.5 when I can find some time.

In the meantime I'm trying to do some work using Unity.  My MacBook Pro is now running hot as a result and the UI really isn't very nice,  especially when changing between different spaces on the Mac (one for email+calendar+Skype,  one for Windows dev,  one for remote machines,  etc.).  Switching back to Fusion in the Unity space shows the grey desktop for a second or so until it renders the Windows windows on the screen.

So Unity's no better than it was in version... 6?

Full screen's been broken in version 11 (maybe version 10 which I skipped).

Is it worth going through support to try and get this sorted?

[ColoradoMarmot]

I don't use full screen mode, so can't directly help, but yep, I'd contact support - haven't seen reports of that before.

[mjh48]

The reference is not particularly helpful since it includes vulnerabilities from before Fusion 10. No way to filter the vulnerabilities for Fusion 10 or those not resolved in Fusion 10. Still no good explanation of why I would want to upgrade to Fusion 11 when I have an iMac that doesn't support Mojave, which consequently eliminates some features available in the upgrade.

[wila]

Hi,

Fusion 10 is still supported right now and thus does still receive all the security patches.

The reply with the link was in reference to user GlennyG who was using Fusion 7, it was not a reply to your original post.

Sorry for the confusion.

--

Wil

[GlennyG]

> The reply with the link was in reference to user GlennyG who was using Fusion 7, it was not a reply to your original post.

Alas I've "upgraded" one machine to 11 which has broken a key feature.  I *definitely* won't be "upgrading" the other machines and will be looking at getting the now broken "upgraded" machine back to working with version 8.5 if I can't resolve it.

All the so-called security updates have had no affect;  it was tinkering with something that didn't need fixing that broke it.

And people wonder why we don't upgrade more quickly.

Definitely not a happy bunny with VMWare for this.

[wackybacky]

in response to your comment Fusion is running hot... I've just reverted back to High Sierra from Mojave. I've seen an average drop in running temperatures of more than 15˚ across all 6 cores. I've been complaining to Apple for months over the running temperatures of my MacBook to no avail. They are well and truly operating on a deny, deny, deny basis... External graphics card memory pressure has gone from 95% to between 16% and  25% when running an external 4k screen. in fairness, these problems are being exacerbated by Fusion on Mojave; but Mojave has lots of faults. Type-C only connection to the eternal screen works better; I was getting seizure inducing screen flashing when on Mojave when plugging the extra screen in. it was failing to charge over the single cable, even though the screen supports this. And I was being plagued with continual WIFI dropouts.

High Sierra has it's own issues; but nothing like Mojave..

But in answer to the original question, Fusion 11 has given me nothing. My purchase was induced by FUD.

Overall, recently regardless of vendor software upgrades are far more troublesome than they should be. There is a definite and quantifiable reduction in the quality of distributions.