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OxkAMam
Contributor
Contributor

Wishlist for VMware Fusion 4...

Given that Fusion 4 is probably not too far off, I thought I'd create a topic where everyone can post their wishlist for the next major version.

For me, I'm reasonably happy with the functionality of Fusion 3.1.2, so I'm not after any major features/changes (although that may change the more I think about what I want/need from Fusion), but below is my list...

1) Keep the stability which I've come to appreciate from Fusion (I know people bang on about how fast Parallels is supposed to be, but I have tried version 5 and 6 and haven't been able to get a stable VM - it's either really slow, or hangs).

2) If they can they can squeeze more performance out of it (which I hope they can), then the faster the better.

3) Proper full support for multi-threaded CPU's. Currently, the multi-threaded part of a CPU core is not utilised, thereby wasting processing power.

3) GUI interface for various tasks. For example, mounting physical disks/partitions in VM's - I know you can use rawdiskCreator, but there should be a simple GUI for selecting the partitions/disks you want in the VM, with Fusion handling the rest. Another example is disabling snapshots for virtual disks - again it can be done by manually adding a setting into the vmx file, but there should be a checkbox setting in a GUI.

4) Improved performance of shared folders. When accessing a shared folder, I get poor speeds and high CPU usage. In Parallels, it's faster with almost zero CPU usage.

5) Fixes for all bugs I've reported.

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130 Replies
DaveP
Commander
Commander

Well I would love to actually have Workstation on the Mac as Fusion is somewhat a hybrid between Workstation and Player. Naturally I know the audience has been a little different than for traditional Workstation uses e.g. development and testing. However in many companies including ones such as the one I work for (SAP), we have the option of MacBooks now so having functionality like Workstation would be great. (I do believe the first work on Fusion included a X11 GTK port of Linux Workstation).

Having said that some things that would make it even better for my usage include:

1. Regular and linked clones

2. Branching snapshot chains

3. Encrypted VM support

4. Team support

5. More API support e.g. VIX API, VMCI APIs - we have tools built against them for automated testing

6. Lion support including QE/CI drivers and audio

7. Newer HD audio device

8. A tabbed UI option (so everyone hcan choose what they want)

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appxjoe
Contributor
Contributor

Dave Parsons wrote:


2. Branching snapshot chains


I'm sure you know this, but just in case, the branching is there, but the interface to expose the branching is not.

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DaveP
Commander
Commander

Yes I do appreciate that. You can do other things using the shell and command line programs but making it an integral part fo the product would be nice.

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cb1kenobi
Contributor
Contributor

Hope it's not too late to add a few requests...

1)  Bring back the full Mac menu bar at the top of the screen (or at least  an option).  I miss being able to see menu meters and notifications.

2) Hardware accelerated Linux graphics drivers

3) Menu item or keyboard shortcut to capture a screenshot

4) When creating a new VM, ask if you want it to start when Fusion starts

5) Support Lion as soon as it's released

6) Make it easier for the extra function mouse buttons (back, forward, etc) to just work

7) Possibly allow the disk image files to be smaller than 2GB  with the thought that Time Machine will then not eat up so much space everytime I save a 10KB file

😎 A GUI to specify ports for NAT'd VMs to forward/proxy incoming  connections to my Mac to the VM.  This way I can share access to my VM  with other people or test with an iPhone/iPad/Android/whatever.

9) VM health stats (cpu usage, memory i/o, disk i/o, network i/o)

10) Any performance enhancements are welcome

11) More frequent updates

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RevHelix
Contributor
Contributor

I'd like to see some ability to "HotSwap" in devices without having ro restart, and networking features expanded a little.

ie:

- Disk Drives

- Network Cards

- Display Adaptors (Cards and Monitors)

- The abiltiy to extend the "Host only Network" to another system, without having to setup a special route on my actual network.

- In addition to the above, be able to rate limit interfaces.

Cheers,

Rev.

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Wouldn't this: "The abiltiy to extend the "Host only Network" to another system, without having to setup a special route on my actual network." defeat the purpose of host only (which is to isolate the VM for security reasons)?

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mbidewell
Contributor
Contributor

I would have to put in a strong vote for opengl/video acceleration for Linux guests.  In their next incarnations both Fedora (gnome shell) and Ubuntu (Unity) will be moving to desktops which require acceleration to function fully.

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SteveHarper
Contributor
Contributor

I meant Fusion 4 has to be backwards compatible with Snow Leopard.  Maddeningly Apple has eliminated all of the PPC supported applications in Lion the rumor has it.  I still use very important PPC supported applications. 

Get the latest and the best Assistive Technology: http://madentec.com/ “Formerly known as Stevamundo.”
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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

It's been roughly 5 years since they made the transition to Intel - time to upgrade those applications.  I've got a couple myself, including a color calibration program that'll require me to buy new hardware too.  Price of progress.

Fusion 4 will defintely run on both 10.6 and 10.7.  I'd bet they'd drop 10.5 support though.

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mjlyons
Contributor
Contributor

First class support for Ubuntu:

  • Render all Ubuntu guest windows when in exposé. On Windows guests, you will see all windows, even if they overlap. On Ubuntu guests, you just get white boxes.
  • Make VMware tools more robust against updating kernels. I'm afraid to update because half the time the tools don't install right and the display driver refuses to resize or use unity.

Thanks!

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dp_fusion
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Multiple headless Linux VM's. Even if you break something doing it! Player for Mac would also be a plus.

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et381
Contributor
Contributor

More wishes

* low CPU usage when idle, so don't drain the battery with Fusion running.

* Manage the usage of the switchable graphics on macbook pro, again, don't stick to the power sucking discrete graphics on the macbook while on battery.

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CuriosCat
Contributor
Contributor

I'd settle for there BEING a VMware Fusion 4.0. Let's see:

1) No major release for over a year

2) No speculation of a timeline for a new release (VMware policy, perhaps, but still)

3) No response to a major release from their biggest competitor

4) No public beta program (unlike in the past)

5) Generally laggy updates; e.g. waiting months for updated VMware Tools to support the latest Ubuntu release

6) Yearly subscriptions that promise free upgrades are worthless, as there AREN'T major upgrades every year.

I don't want to sound negative, but all of this tells me that VMware is neglecting Fusion. If I had to guess, they've made a business decision to focus on heavy-duty server virtualization products that bring in much higher licensing fees than a retail desktop product. As a customer, I feel like I'm languishing, and the cross-upgrade to Parallels is increasingly tempting, if only to get video performance up to snuff.

But I use other VMware products, I love the convenience of being able to move VMs around, and VMware Fusion has some power user features I use (mostly borrowed from VMware Workstation and not exposed through the Fusion interface, but there nevertheless.) For those reasons, I'd like to keep using Fusion, but I can't wait forever.

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Actually, I suspect the team has been building the new VMWare Viewer for the iPad, so you may not be far off.  Now that that product is on the street, we should see some fusion action.

To be honest though, how many more new features really are there to add?  At this point, 10.7 compatibility and performance improvements are probably the 'must haves' in Fusion 4.

Though I *STILL* wish they'd turn off the %^@#(*@ auto-email notification bug in the forums.  Really really annoying.

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appxjoe
Contributor
Contributor

dlhotka wrote:

To be honest though, how many more new features really are there to add?  At this point, 10.7 compatibility and performance improvements are probably the 'must haves' in Fusion 4.

That is only true for the "Fusion is not Workstation" crowd.  I consider Fusion to be seriously lacking in features.  As noted earlier, the snapshot management really stinks compared to workstation's capabilities and even Parallels or Oracle's free Virtual Box.

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SvenGus
Expert
Expert

Today, I downloaded the new Xcode 4 from the Mac App Store: it downloads as an installer, so there should really be no problem for installer-based apps like Fusion...

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SvenGus
Expert
Expert

Yes, indeed, a little more "openness" would a very good thing, for all...

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

I should have been more clear - I definitely would like Workstation parity...it's all the consumer features that I just don't see a lot of growth in.

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Ralph_in_Bonn
Contributor
Contributor

I'm one of those users who isn't developing software.

I just need the fastest possible stable VM to run translation memory software that simply isn't available for the Mac.

Fusion 3 is stable but not particularly fast compared to Parallels 6. Unfortunately, Fusion 3 seems to have video/keyboard problems when used in conjunction with Star TRANSIT NXT, SDL Studio (sometimes) or even Word (sometimes) on a Windows XP VM - the text shakes while you type. Currently, we are using Parallels 6 for work and Fusion for our banking but I would love to return to Fusion if things work again with the new version.

In addition to stability and better keyboard/video implementation, we need raw speed. We've got 4 or 8 core machines with SSDs, but we want to run translation memory software (a form of specialized database) together with Dragon NaturallySpeaking and that take a lot of power.

Regarding TimeMachine, I keep our working and data files in directories on the Mac and share these with the VM. This way I can keep a copy of the current VM somewhere else and let TimeMachine take care of our working files. This does mean that high-speed data exchange between the shared folders and the VM are a must since our software is continually accessing these working and data files. SInce I don't really trust Windows, I really want the VM to be isolated from anything on the Mac that I have not specifically granted it access to.

It would be great if VMware could hide the fact that the currently running VM is a copy of another one. At present, if the software on my VM becomes corrupt, some programs will notice that the copy is not really the same VM machine as before and will demand to be reactivated. Unfortunately, this requires contacting the software company since you would normally have to return your license token (deactivating the previous instance) so that you can activate the new one.  Naturally, such failures only occur on the weekend when you have to deliver the project you're working on first thing Monday morning. So I would really like to be able to have a copy or clone of a VM with all the application software activated and ready to go and completely unaware of the fact that there are other (not running) copies on my drives. If people worry about multiple use of single licenses, I don't care if you check the network as long as you don't mess up the stability of the whole system. The software from the majority of the more paranoid companies generally breaks down in the course of trying to prevent the use of bootleg copies. I don't use bootleg software, but my wife and I are freelancers and need to have functioning systems 24/7.

Looking forward to seeing what VMware comes up with.

All the best

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WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

Ralph in Bonn wrote:

It would be great if VMware could hide the fact that the currently running VM is a copy of another one. At present, if the software on my VM becomes corrupt, some programs will notice that the copy is not really the same VM machine as before and will demand to be reactivated.

If you make a copy of the Virtual Machine while it is shutdown from within the Guest OS, not suspended and VMware Fusion closed and then run that copy or a copy of the copy at another point in time on the same Host it was created on and reply "I moved it" vs "I copied it" when prompted even though technically it's a copy nonetheless you should not be prompted for reactivating anything in the Guest OS inclusive.  If you copy it to a different Host then reactivation is normal and just has to be done when applicable.

You can also add the following to the Virtual Machine's .vmx configuration file and it will automatically act as if you replied "I moved it" vs "I copied it".

uuid.action = "keep"
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