VMware has made aggressive moves toward the cloud, but the virtualization solutions provider hasn’t abandoned its quest to optimize the Microsoft Windows experience for Apple Macintosh users. VMware is rolling out VMware Fusion 3 on Oct. 27 and aims to make it easier for users to run Windows applications, including graphics-intensive games, alongside Mac applications. In total, VMware Fusion 3 offers more than 50 new features and enhancements.
Jocelyn Goldfein, vice president and general manager of VMware’s desktop business unit, promised Fusion 3 will make it easier for users to run Windows applications on the Mac.
“For more than 10 years, VMware virtualization has given users the choice of where to run their favorite applications,” Goldfein said. “We are excited about the rapid adoption of VMware Fusion in the Mac community since its introduction just over two years ago, making it the number-one choice to run Windows on a Mac.”
Snow Leopard Optimization
Some of the key new features in Fusion 3 include optimization for Mac OS X Snow Leopard, a full Windows experience, simple switching, and 3-D graphics support.
VMware said Fusion 3 was built from the ground up for the Mac. It leverages Snow Leopard’s architecture with a new 64-bit core engine and native support for the 64-bit kernel. According to VMware, the result is an even better Windows on Mac performance than previous Fusion versions.
“The critical point to optimize the experience for Mac users is to be as up to date as possible on the Mac OS, and Snow Leopard is the OS du jour,” said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. “Having Fusion optimized for Snow Leopard is a critical point.”
Fusion 3 will be the first software of its kind to give users the full Windows 7 experience, side by side with a Mac, complete with Windows Aero and Flip…