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jainraje
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Moving from Personal use Player 12 to Player 13 on a MAC

My (slightly older) MBP is running most recent Big Sur and Fusion Player 12 with no issues. I see The Player 13 is now available. Any reason to upgrade? Any reason not to upgrade?

 

TIA,

jainraje

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dempson
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In your case (older MBP with an Intel processor running macOS Big Sur), you cannot upgrade to Fusion 13 at present, because Fusion 13 won't run on macOS Big Sur.

Assuming your Mac isn't too old, then at some point you may want to upgrade it to a newer macOS version, e.g. because macOS Big Sur will stop getting security updates in late 2023.

If you upgraded to macOS Monterey you could run Fusion 12 or 13: in that case the main reason to get 13 would be if you needed to run a newer guest operating system which wasn't supported by Fusion 12, or you wanted new features of Fusion 13.

If you upgraded to macOS Ventura you would have to upgrade to Fusion 13, because Fusion 12 doesn't support Ventura.

See the release notes for Fusion 13 to get an idea about new features:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Fusion/13.0/rn/vmware-fusion-130-release-notes/index.html

MBP models and supported macOS versions (only considering Intel models able to run Big Sur):

  • Late 2013 and Mid 2014: Big Sur is the last supported macOS version. You would need to replace the Mac with a newer model to run macOS Monterey or later and keep using Fusion. (Note that if you need to run x86-based operating systems in virtual machines, your new Mac must also have an Intel processor, which limits to you considering 2015 through 2020 models, not Apple Silicon models with M1 or later.)
  • Early 2015 and 2016: Monterey is the last supported macOS version.
  • 2017 through 2020: can run Monterey or Ventura, future macOS support not yet known.

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dempson
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In your case (older MBP with an Intel processor running macOS Big Sur), you cannot upgrade to Fusion 13 at present, because Fusion 13 won't run on macOS Big Sur.

Assuming your Mac isn't too old, then at some point you may want to upgrade it to a newer macOS version, e.g. because macOS Big Sur will stop getting security updates in late 2023.

If you upgraded to macOS Monterey you could run Fusion 12 or 13: in that case the main reason to get 13 would be if you needed to run a newer guest operating system which wasn't supported by Fusion 12, or you wanted new features of Fusion 13.

If you upgraded to macOS Ventura you would have to upgrade to Fusion 13, because Fusion 12 doesn't support Ventura.

See the release notes for Fusion 13 to get an idea about new features:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Fusion/13.0/rn/vmware-fusion-130-release-notes/index.html

MBP models and supported macOS versions (only considering Intel models able to run Big Sur):

  • Late 2013 and Mid 2014: Big Sur is the last supported macOS version. You would need to replace the Mac with a newer model to run macOS Monterey or later and keep using Fusion. (Note that if you need to run x86-based operating systems in virtual machines, your new Mac must also have an Intel processor, which limits to you considering 2015 through 2020 models, not Apple Silicon models with M1 or later.)
  • Early 2015 and 2016: Monterey is the last supported macOS version.
  • 2017 through 2020: can run Monterey or Ventura, future macOS support not yet known.
jainraje
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Your post is *very* helpful. I had no idea Player 13 was not compatible with Big Sur. I recall my Mid 2014 MBP could only be updated to Big Sur so Player 13 will not be in my near future. I'm budgeting a M2 MBP for 2023 which then Player 13 or newer will make sense for me to migrate to.

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dempson
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What operating system(s) are you running in VMs on your current MacBook Pro?

As I implied in the list at my end of the previous post, if you are planning to move to an M2 MacBook Pro next year, it will not be possible to use any of your existing virtual machines on the new Mac, because the virtual machine must use the same core architecture as the processor of the host computer.

Your existing 2014 MacBook Pro has an Intel (x86) processor and VMware Fusion on that Mac can run virtual machines with x86-based operating systems (such as Windows 10 or earlier, older macOS versions, and x86 variants of Linux).

Your future M2 MacBook Pro has an Apple Silicon (ARM) processor and VMware Fusion 13 on that Mac would be able to run virtual machines with ARM-based operating systems, but not x86-based operating systems.

The initial release of VMware Fusion 13 running on an M1/M2 is mainly for running ARM variants of Linux, plus it has limited support for the ARM variant of Windows 11 (with some fiddling required and some missing features). macOS guests are not yet supported.

By the time you get your M2 MBP, a later update of VMware Fusion 13 may be available with better ARM Windows 11 and ARM Linux support, but we don't know whether macOS guest support will be coming any time soon (if it was, it would be limited to running macOS Monterey or later as a guest). Older macOS and Windows versions are out of the question, as are any other x86 operating systems (such as x86 Windows 11 or Linux variants).

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jainraje
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My VM is Windows10. I have 1 single application that requires Windows. By the time I get a M2 MBP I'll move to what ever version of MacOS, Windows and VMware Player (or equivalent) is available at that time make a decision whether to install the single application on the new setup or move to a alternative solution which runs natively on the Mac.

At this point I'm trying to stretch the life of my mid-2014 i7 MBP. I was running Hi Sierra on it and thanks to some experts in these forums I was guided to upgrade from High Sierra to Big Sur. The update went virtually without any issues and has put new life into the MBP. 

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ColoradoMarmot
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Keep in mind that your Windows 10 VM will not run on an M1/2 machine.  You'll have to build a new Windows 11 ARM VM.  Hopefully by then we'll have real tools for the guest.

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dempson
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If you only need to run one application and no Mac equivalent is available when you move to Apple Silicon, you should look at Crossover as a possible solution - it lets you run Windows applications directly on macOS, and works by emulating the Windows API (instead of running a copy of Windows in a virtual machine). You would need to use the free trial to see how well your particular application works, or at least check if they have mentioned the application you use in their compatibility list.

I used Crossover briefly a few years ago but my needs for actual Windows were complex and varied enough that I found it easier to stick with the VM solution (or a real PC). Your Windows usage pattern sounds much simpler.

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