Please reply if you bought VMWare 3 and want your money back

[object]

I don't think I'm the only one realizing that the latest release is pretty much unusable.

I am a software developer and I understand that software can have issues. But this is not a piece of software that has some issues, this is a piece of software that just plain and simple doesn't work.

Please reply to this message if you want your money back. I think VMWare needs to understand that we are not their beta testers and we have real work to do.

[ewestby]

Look, I know you're frustrated, but isn't it apparent from the volume of postings here that the release is working fine for the vast majority of users? Sure, there are glitches -- I'm seeing artifacts when Aero is turned on, and I'm disappointed that the entire screen is blurred when 3D acceleration is enabled -- but how do you expect to be taken seriously when you make a post like the one above?

The unfortunate fact is that you're the outlier in this case. 3.0 is working well for most people: astonishingly well, in fact. The speed increases I'm seeing in both XP and Vista are incredibly welcome, and I haven't seen a single compatibility issue yet. (fingers crossed)

If you're having specific issues, describe them, along with detailed information about your host system, virtual OS environment, and anything else that might have caused the error, and someone will more than likely jump on it.

[neilio]

The 30-day free trial didn't turn up these issues for you before you purchased?

[modular747]

The 30-day free trial didn't turn up these issues for you before you purchased?

And not at all surprising that he posted absolutely nothing about what was not working.... Just trolling.

[object]

I didn't get the trial, I just bought it outright. I have been using VMWare for more than a year, many hours a day, and I didn't expect that simple things that simply worked in 2.x are broken in 3.0

[object]

neilio, if you want to spend five minutes looking through the last day's posts, please do so.

If you want to make this about me and my tone, sure, go ahead, but it doesn't help anybody. Fact of the matter is that simple things like screen corruption in Unity when all I do is minimize a stupid window, or the Control Panel not launching in Unity, or "artifacts" left all over the place in Aero, or screen blurring with 3D acceleration are not just "glitches", like a previous post said, but unacceptable issues for version 3 release.

But if you want to just be "nice" to VMWare and play beta testers for them, it's your right. I have better things to do.

I agree that the speed improvement over 2.x are quite dramatic, but at the same time Unity mode is unusable. One does not excuse the other.

[rcardona2k]

I bought the 3.0 upgrade knowing I can always count on a 3.0.1, .2, etc to address issues not found in the beta program. I'm running 3.0 happily but I'm waiting for 3.0.1 before installing on my wife's machine. She's happy in 2.0.6 right now, change would confuse her.

[modular747]

Yet these issues aren't evident to others, and the problems must be at your end. You might want to employ the analytic and troubleshooting skills you must have if you're a software developer - none is evident in any of your posts.

3.0 was extensively beta tested before release. There are no doubt remaining bugs, but it is far, far from "unusable". Since you passed over the 30 day free trial, you have absolutely no claim for a refund.

[object]

modular,

Your sarcasm is much appreciated, however, I am neither a VMWare developer, nor a tester, I am a customer. And I fully expect when I buy a product, that it should work. On my end.

Maybe I have the most unique Mac in the world, if I'm the only one to notice that minimizing windows doesn't work. Even so, I still haven't heard anything from VMWare support, maybe a suggestion or two about how to figure out if the problem is on my end. It worked fine in version 2, yesterday.

As for the refund, the next time you buy a car, do make sure to get a 30-day free trial, just in case it turns out it doesn't work on your end.

[ewestby]

You're just not getting it: all computers are unique in some fashion. Each one of us, to some extent, rolls the dice when we perform a major upgrade, or install a new hard drive, or add a new video card. There is always going to be an outlier, someone for whom things go screwy. It's no fun to be that person, but it has nothing to do with you having "the most unique Mac in the world." That's what backups are for.

Your car analogy is incomprehensible, since automobile manufacturers don't offer 30-day free trials, while VMware DOES. You simply chose not to take advantage of it. For crying out loud, take some personal responsiblity. Restore from your backup and move on.

[betay]

I agree with you that there are too many problems with version 3. Unfortunately for me, I'm new to the mac community and have limited experience figuring out what the heck is going on.

I did feel violated after installing the program and nothing seemed to work. Within 2 days I had to uninstall back to 2.0.6.

I like the new look, but the functionality was awful... it just didn't function for me! At all! Even on my newly purchased macbook pro.

Thanks for your post. Now I don't feel like an imbecile.

~B

BTW, I still may go ahead and buy the new version while the price is low. I guess they'll fix the problems eventually and offer free updates.

19 bucks for students :-0

[admin]

There's also the 30-day money back guarantee. If you're having problems with Fusion, open support tickets so we can track and fix issues -- the forums, while convenient, are not the main support channel. If you're careful, try Fusion before forking over money. If you find a showstopper, return it (and let us know so we can fix things if possible). There's no reason to be such a drama queen.

[ewestby]

There's also the 30-day money back guarantee.

That is pretty impressive. So original poster, there's your refund, no torch-wielding mob required! Enjoy.

[object]

It was never my intention to start a flame war, but I guess some people are too thin-skinned to address the real issues and choose instead to insult the messenger. It's their right, it's a free country.

Here again, try this scenario (see attached screenshots):

Picture 1 -- Windows Explorer in Unity mode (note the screen corruption in the top corners)

Picture 2 -- after clicking the minimize button in the Explorer window

Picture 3 -- after clicking in the taskbar, supposedly restoring the Explorer window

Picture 4 -- after clicking in the taskbar again

After clicking once more in the taskbar, it returned to normal (like in Picture 1).

Some people choose to call that a "glitch". I choose to call it "unusable." It may be that it only happens on my machine, however unlikely that may be. But then again, it worked fine in version 2. And I am still waiting for someone from VMWare to address the problem.

NOTE: Picture 4 attached in a separate post, since only three attachments are allowed.

[object]

Picture 4 attached

[WebKam09]

I just want to comment that I have also returned to Fusion 2. These are the reasons:

• Random screen cutouts during various activities from accounting software to solitaire.

• Long time to boot.

• Once in Unity mode, the task bar is not recognized as being there by Mac software, where it is on 2.x.

As a note, I use Fusion 2.x for 6-8 hours a day, as I have to use the guest operating system (windows vista business) for our accounting package and invoicing, while I do graphics and web design using photoshop and bbedit. Until I installed Fusion 3, this use has been stable for 3 months. After trying 3 for only 2 days, I went back to the last version of 2.

[MaLaun]

I have also downgraded to 2.0.6. because of performance issues with windows 7. I did ask vmware for a refund of my upgrade without ever hearing anything from them.

P.S: I've been a vmware user at work for many years. I have even licened it privatly. Privatly I hold licenses for VM Workstation 3.X and fusion 2.06 with upgrade to 3.0

[IPF90]

As per my own posting yesterday, I have been forced to revert back to 2.06. I've been a user since ver 1.0, and have never had any problems with any of the upgrades, installs etc, until version 3.0. I have XP running on a MacPro all day every day, but version 3.0 became unusable. I've sent a support ticket explaining the issues, but nothing back from VMware. I also agree with others that some of the changes to the user interface may seem like good ideas but I found to be somewhat less than practical. I am waiting for 3.01.

And yes, as a long time user I am very disappointed about the performance and the upgrade cost, but most importantly the lack of acknowledgement from VMware that some users are having issues.

[MNSteve]

I too have found v3 to be unusable, for the same reason that others in this thread have cited. The screen rendering is simply broken. I have found that if I drag the cursor over the parts of the screen that were not rendered that Fusion will correctly paint it in most cases. I'm not sure if this will be enough of a circumvention to allow me to use the product until a fix is released or whether I will have to take the non-trivial time to restore the v2 system. And yes, I've read the threads here and fiddled with the settings but it hasn't addressed the problem.

This is such a serious and basic problem that I have to assume that VMWare did not test this at all. Beta testing is wonderful, but you cannot assume that the functions of a system are tested just because you've supplied it to a bunch of beta testers. The people who volunteer to be beta testers are generally the early adopters of everything, so that group might not test the function used by the core customers. I am running XP on a MacBook Pro that's a couple of years old. I've been running Fusion for more than a year with no problems. All I did was upgrade to the new release and the result is an unusable system for me. I'm not doing anything fancy, just running very simple applications like IE and Microsoft Money. In fact, it doesn't matter what program I run; the problems are so basic that just trying to press the <start> icon doesn't work.

So if this release is working for the vast majority of customers, I have to believe that the vast majority of customers is running Vista or V7 on a sparkling new Mac. I'm very disappointed in this new release and the obvious lack of testing that it has received.

[object]

I have been watching this thread for the last couple of days, and all I see is inconsequential, trivial stuff like the following:

- can't map a drive to a shared folder

- no sound with Windows 7

- VMWARE runs extremely slow

- Office applications crash

- mouse gets slower and slower

- Ubuntu doesn't see AC adapter

- some USB devices no longer work

- Fusion freezes

- local spooler not running

- or it stopped running

- Aero... don't even go there

- disk write errors

- VMWARE can't find the new partition

- indexing folders not working

- screen corruption (duh)

- does 3.0 work with expose?!

- keyboard freezes

- trackpad freezes, too

- dual displays?! yeah, right

- oh, come on, attachments not working in Outlook?

Makes me wonder when will the VMWARE support guys have some time to address my major problem, which is that minimizing a freaking window doesn't work?!?

Seriously now, is VMWARE the company aware that this thing is a consumer product intended for the average Joe that walks into the Apple store and goes oh, cool, I can run my Windows shit, too, guess I'm gonna buy that Mac after all? And it is not exactly (or primarily) intended for people like me the grinch, or ewestby, or etung, or Bargonaut, or any of the other hackers or really dedicated folks who put in countless hours to help you making this better?

I have been using VMWARE for a year and a half now, and my freaking paycheck depends on it, and I want it to get better, so don't you think it's just about time to realize and accept that the latest update sucks, and do something about it?!