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BD1
Contributor
Contributor

Mossberg says VMware is 'glitchy' with Snow Leopard

Is this new version of VMware available for the general public? See below:

"VMware’s Fusion program for running Windows simultaneously with the Mac operating system worked, and I was able to use Windows. But it was a bit glitchy. VMware (VMW) provided me with a forthcoming new version tailored for Snow Leopard’s changed underlying architecture, which worked perfectly."

http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20090826/apple-changes-leopards-spots/

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9 Replies
Mikero
Community Manager
Community Manager

Currently not.

We can't comment on release dates, but you're welcome to check out our Technology Preview yourself...

http://info.vmware.com/content/6693_FusionTest_REG

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Michael Roy - Product Marketing Engineer: VCF
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jacobp
Contributor
Contributor

I understand you cannot comment on release dates, but can VMWare comment on v2.0.5 compatibility with Snow Leopard.

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Mikero
Community Manager
Community Manager

The 32bit kernel of Snow Leopard works with fusion 2.0.5 just fine. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now.

It's officially an unsupported configuration, so strange things may occur which we have not tested, but I've been running without issue.

The 64bit will not work, but SL will default to the 32bit anyway, so unless you force 64bit kernel in the host, there should be no issues.

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Michael Roy - Product Marketing Engineer: VCF
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WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

The 64bit will not work, but SL will default to the 32bit anyway, so unless you force 64bit kernel in the host, there should be no issues.

While it's probably safe to say that the majority of Fusion users are running on Mac's this is true however IIUC for those running Fusion on an Xserve built in the last two years and upgrading to Snow Leopard it will default to the 64-bit kernel so running Fusion 2.0.5 on a default Snow Leopard Xserve could be an issue and who would want to run Snow Leopard with a 32-bit kernel on an Xserve. Smiley Happy

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Mikero
Community Manager
Community Manager

this is very true 😃

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Michael Roy - Product Marketing Engineer: VCF
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dwitkowski
Contributor
Contributor

Seems when I go to that link, I register and you tell me you will contact me when you are ready.

Seems like you may want loyal VMWare users to switch to another product, as you are not ready with Snow Leopard support out of the gate, and/or you decided to keep loyal customers in the dark and worrying about what to do.

Doesn't seem like a good way to treat loyal customers, I guess if you're Walt Mossberg, you can get what you need, but loyal customers are left out of that loop. Pretty bad VMWare.

Smiley Sad

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WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

This has nothing to do with being a loyal customer or not and is quite typical in the industry in that initially beta's (or Technology Previews if that's what you want to call them) are closed or are only available to a limited number of people and then it gets opened up. Also since things can change considerably between Seeds and the GM of a new OS it's imposable to have a product like Fusion be fully compatible and officially supported in every respect upon a release of a new OS and always takes a little time after the release of a new OS for some applications like Fusion to be brought to that point.

As far as being contacted to partake in the Technology Preview just be patient and wait and you'll be contacted.

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Pat_Lee
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

VMware Fusion 2.0.5 works well with 32-bit Snow Leopard and is experimentally supported today as we announced earlier tonight.

We have more testing against the final release of Snow Leopard to make sure everything works as we expect it, but things are looking good with Snow Leopard 32-bit and VMware Fusion 2.0.5 today.

Pat

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Jaimie
Contributor
Contributor

I'm running Snow Leopard as of today on my 2009 Mini (Macmini3,1). 32bit kernel, of course.

VMware 2.0.5 is running fine, no problems at all - bar one. 3D support with my Windows XPsp3 client, which although still working appears to have dropped to about 20% of the previous performance, 3-4fps down from 20fps for example.This is with DX9 games that were playable in VMware under Leopard before the update.

Worse, while running games the whole host-side UI also works at a few frames per second. As I'm typing this it hits the page in little bursts, Dock animation is jerky, though sound and the mouse cursor is smooth. Activity monitor says vmware-vmx is using a steady ~40% CPU, and nothing else is using more than 4%, for a 20% user, 40% system total.

Closing the game takes me right back to normal. vmware-vmx shortly drops down to 6%cpu.

Is there some work to be done on this? Please contact me if you need further detail. This is 70% of what I use VMware for.

Sample games: from the very simple Fish Tales (drops to one frame every few seconds!) to the likes of Half Life 2 (3fps), Tales of Monkey Island episodes 1 and 2 (4fps), Doom3 (2fps).

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