Fusion 6 docs?

[nospamboz]

Click on the link to the release notes on this page: http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/fusion_pubs.html You get a "page not found error". The requirements say Fusion 6 requires OS X 10.7.5, (Seriously?) http://www.vmware.com/support/fusion/faq/requirements.html But the documentation centre (Geting Started> System Requirements) says 10.6.8 can be a host. http://pubs.vmware.com/fusion-6/index.jsp< Clarification, please? And did I miss the beta, or is this it? (Seriously? 10.7.5?)

[nospamboz]

Aside: The new forum UI sucks purple donkey ears. No preview? No text mode? Paragraphs forced together? Bah. I'm outta here.

[WoodyZ]

nospamboz wrote: Click on the link to the release notes on this page: http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/fusion_pubs.html You get a "page not found error".

VMware is aware of the page not found error as is working on it.

The requirements say Fusion 6 requires OS X 10.7.5, (Seriously?) http://www.vmware.com/support/fusion/faq/requirements.html But the documentation centre (Geting Started> System Requirements) says 10.6.8 can be a host. http://pubs.vmware.com/fusion-6/index.jsp< Clarification, please?

I've sent a message to one of the developers to get clarification on this.

And did I miss the beta, or is this it? (Seriously? 10.7.5?)

Yes, the Technical Preview 2012 started in May and had a second release in July.

[admin · Accepted solution]

Woody, thanks for the notification.

Fusion 6 requires Mac OS X 10.7.0 or higher. If you're running Lion 10.7.5 is recommended but not required.

Snow Leopard, including 10.6.8, is no longer supported as a host OS. Time, and our OpenGL needs, have moved on.

I'll chase up changes to the doc center and requirements page to clarify this.

-Simon

[nospamboz]

spb2011 wrote:

Snow Leopard, including 10.6.8, is no longer supported as a host OS. Time, and our OpenGL needs, have moved on.

https://developer.apple.com/graphicsimaging/opengl/capabilities/GLInfo_1068.html

https://developer.apple.com/graphicsimaging/opengl/capabilities/GLInfo_1075.html

Not quite sure what the new requirement is. At first glance 10.6.8 and 10.7.5 both support OpenGL 2.1 and GLSL 1.2, at least on my 9400 graphics chip.

Not sure if it's a good idea to cut off one-third of your market (April 2013 data). I'm sure that's why Apple supports upgrading to Mavericks direct from Snow Leopard.

Snow Leopard is Still the King of Mac OS X Jungle | Chitika Online Advertising Network

Now what I *can* believe is that the Apple-provided development platform for Mavericks makes it very difficult to create 10.6.8 executables. Not impossible, just very difficult. That's been Apple's style for a while since iOS - use the developers to drive the new OS uptake. I walked away from that on iOS, and will likely walk away from OS X the same way if Apple pulls that stunt again.

I've planned for a while to switch my triple-boot OSX-Linux-Windows Mac to Linux as the primary boot OS, virtualising the others for general use. Looks like I need to bring that plan forward. I may update to Mavericks regardless (even after being burned by Lion and Mountain Lion), but if I'm feeling spiteful, maybe I'll make use of those SL virtualisation tricks that can be found on the web.

[admin]

Thanks for the post.

The GL caps are just one dimension - each major OS version requires tweaks to account for subtle differences in behaviour between version; sometimes the tweaks are different for Intel/ATI/nVidia GPUs. By limiting the number of old versions we support and test we free up engineers to do things like the IOAcelerated framebuffer driver for Lion and Mountain Lion included in VMware Fusion 6.

Of course there are other considerations including build tools, as you mentioned, and non-graphics framework features that become available in newer versions of Mac OS X.

The data you cite doesn't mesh with the usage information for VMware Fusion. Of course no data-set is perfect but the change was made with an eye to the impact on our customers. Of course, older versions of VMware Fusion continue to be available from the MyVMware portal (the feature is still there, the version drop-down box moved during the redesign.)

-Simon