2022 Mac and Fusion

[Melissaluce]

let me start by saying I'm blond and not very tech savvy.....I just purchased a 2022 Mac with Siicon software I downloaded the silicon version onto my laptop I sign in and nothing pops up other than the VMware Fusion Tech Preview window.  does this mean it is up and running on my computer?  I want to purchase a breeding program that is pretty expensive but don't want to do that unless I know it will run can someone help me please

[scott28tt]

Expect a moderator to move your thread to the area for Fusion Tech Preview, now that I have reported it.

The Tech Preview of Fusion is the VMware software which enables you to run VMs on a Mac, but it will only run VMs that use an ARM-based OS not an x86-based OS. What OS does your “breeding program” run on?

[Melissaluce]

what does this mean?  

[Melissaluce]

where do I find that information?

[scott28tt]

What is the “breeding program” application you want to be able to use?

What operating system does it run on?

What brought you to wanting to run Fusion?

[Melissaluce · Accepted solution]

I believe it is a windows plateform

[Melissaluce]

It runs on windows, When I called PedFast the support tech told me I needed to to download VMFusion to run the program.  Then I learned that my new computer is not intel but silicon......Im so confused.  I called apple and they walked me thru downloading the silicon preview and it downloaded and makes me sign in but does not open anything on my computer

[Melissaluce]

I didn't realize this was going to be all that difficult

[Melissaluce]

do you know how I can get intouch with anyone from fusion? someone who can walk me through this?

[scott28tt]

Fusion doesn’t come with a Windows VM, you have to build that yourself before installing any applications (such as PedFast) inside it.

Only a version of Windows designed for ARM-based processors has any chance of working in a VM on a Mac with an Apple M1 processor such as yours.

If you want to build a Windows VM, you need to read the documents here: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/Fusion-for-Apple-Silicon-Tech/tkb-p/160003

Is there a version of PedFast which installs directly on MacOS rather than requiring Windows? Do they have a web-based version that you could access with a browser?

[ozsmacd]

Could I suggest you call and speak with Pedfast about this, because your choices are fairly limited here:

Option A - Pedfast are able to provide you a native MacOS version of the product (for example their "Iped Everywhere" product supports Mac, so would work just fine without fiddling).

Option B - If option A fails, use a Windows laptop with an Intel processor (yes that might mean returning your MacBook to Apple, they have a no questions asked return policy within a certain timeframe).  You might need to take advantage of Apple's no questions asked return policy, typically 7 or 14 days depending on where you are located.

If these options don't work, I'm afraid nothing else can be done.  It is all very confusion for sure, but key thing is that almost all folks should avoid purchasing an Apple Mac computer if you need to run software that only runs on Windows.

Some further information:

VMware Fusion don't currently support running Windows for Arm processors virtually on a M1 Mac computer, no point in asking for help.

Microsoft also don't support running Windows for Arm processors, and don't offer any licenses to allow this (highly technical people can force it to work, but it is 99% un-likely to work with your program as it will be for Windows Intel nor Windows Arm)

Processors currently come in two main types, Intel and Arm.  Think of them as either Petrol or Diesel engines in cars.  Apple used Intel chips until 2021, when they started moving to using Arm based chips (they call these the M1 chip).

[Technogeezer]

To add a bit of either clarity or confusion (I'm not sure which) to what @ozsmacd said

I can agree about "I didn't think it would be this hard". Apple's move away from Intel CPUs in Macs has generated a lot of confusion for those just expect to run Windows on their Macs. 

First, the version of Fusion that runs on the Mac is a technical preview - which is geek-speak for pre-release, unsupported software designed to solicit feedback on features and functions. It's out there for more advanced users to test it, beat on it, and tell VMware where it works and where it doesn't. 

The analogy about petrol (gasoline) and diesel is very appropriate (and a very good one). Because of the change Apple made to use their own non-Intel chip set  (runs on diesel), the version of Windows that you'd run in a virtual machine on your PC and Macs that had Intel CPUs (needs to run on petrol/gasoline) will not run on the new Macs.

Now Microsoft does have a version of Windows that runs on an ARM CPU (diesel) - which are very similar to what Apple's chips are. But they don't really make it readily available except to people that have certain Microsoft Surface devices. Technical people have gotten it to work in a virtual machine with the Fusion technical preview release - but it's not easy for the typical Windows user. That might improve when VMware actually releases Fusion to officially support the new Apple CPUs. 

Parallels actually makes it a lot easier to run the ARM (diesel) version of Windows in a virtual machine on Apple M1 (diesel) hardware than VMware if you want a more out-of-the-box solution and you need it today. But, Microsoft does not officially condone or support it. 

Let's go back to the diesel/petrol analogy for a second because there's another thing to consider.

Both Apple and Microsoft have features that allow "normal" applications built for Intel CPUs (petrol) to run on ARM cpus (diesel). Apple calls it Rosetta 2, and Microsoft has something similar with a geeky sounding non-marketing name. Most applications work fine using these capabilities (giving people a migration path to new hardware), but there's not a 100% guarantee that it works for all applications.  If you decide to go down the road of trying to run the application in a Windows virtual machine on your Mac, contacting Pedfast is probably a good move to to see if it will work as it will save you from being put into the role of product quality tester. 

And of course, if as @ozsmacd notes, Pedfast has a native macOS version of their software, that's typically a lot easier and preferable than the complexity of setting up a virtual machine.