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Fusion Pro is OS X only, allowing you to run Windows and Linux on your Mac in a virtual machine. This is the first entry on our list that is restricted to a particular OS and serves a particular purpose only, but does it do it well or what. Yet another VMware product, you’d think, but they’re just that good, and Fusion Pro is the icing on the cake. VMware Workstation Player costs $150 for a commercial license, but is free for personal, non-commercial use, making it an ideal solution for home users.īuy/Download VMware Workstation Player 3. Workstation Player’s virtual machines are also portable, so you can transfer the whole VM file on a flash drive or other storage media and use it on a completely different machine as long as it can run the Player itself.
This makes it the ideal solution for deploying in an educational environment without making exorbitant expenses in hardware and software. Workstation Player is also capable of running restricted virtual machines, i.e., machines that are created using VMware Workstation Pro.
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It is also available only for Windows and Linux, but fully supports Windows 10. It can be used to create and run virtual machines without switching operating systems, with the caveat that Workstation Player can run only three virtual machines at the same time. Think of Workstation Player as a tamer version of its elder sibling, Workstation Pro. VMware Workstation Pro is primarily geared at developers and IT professionals, which is why it carries the most expensive price tag on this list, i.e., $249 per license.īuy VMware Workstation Pro 2. The program can also replicate tablets, sync virtual machines from the cloud so that they’re accessible no matter where you are, has advanced hardware support, allows for sharing of virtual machines and a slew of other features that will satisfy even the most hardcore users. Workstation Pro is the elite of the corps when it comes to VirtualBox alternatives, transforming your computer into a host, ready for a variety of operating systems for testing, deploying and even everyday use. With over 15 years of industry experience in this area, VMware products come with the guarantee that they are going to work. When it comes to virtualization of operating systems, VMware is a name that needs no introduction. Be advised, however, that some of them come with rather hefty price tags. While VirtaulBox is a capable offering, it’s marred with poor performance and lacks new features that the competition has been quick to incorporate. If you’re one of those people who are looking for other virtualization options besides VirtualBox, read on to see our picks that best serve the purpose. In fact, they’re usually far from the best and that’s the case with VirtualBox.
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One of these days I may even decide to install a version of Linux on my mini.The one catch with VirtualBox, however, is what is generally the case with open source and free software: they’re not always the best solutions out there. All in all, I think Fusion is a great product and worth the money. Using it, I have never had Windows lock up, and there have been no problem with display flicker, regardless of whether I’m running Windows in full-screen mode or in a window. My impression is that Windows “feels” snappier under Fusion than under Parallels - this despite the fact that I’m running Fusion on a mini, which is a slower machine than the iMac at work where I run Parallels. With this new code, Windows booted up without a hitch, and has been running well ever since. An automated voice read out a new code, which I copied down and entered into my computer.
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Although it was a bit scary to see XP “broken” - I had just paid $180 for it, after all - the reactivation process was relatively painless: I called Microsoft via a toll-free number and read the product code to their voice-recognition system.
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The manual warned that when installed this way, Windows would have to be reactivated the first time it was booted under Fusion.
The disadvantage is that you cannot suspend a Windows session. The main advantage to this arrangement is that the machine can be booted directly into Windows, bypassing Fusion altogether if need be. I have not been disappointed.īased on recommendations I read on the web, I chose to install Windows XP using BootCamp, then installed Fusion and set it to use the BootCamp partition. So when I purchased a new Mac mini for use at home, I decided to try VMware Fusion. I use Parallels on my iMac at work, and have had a few problems with it: the display sometimes flickers when I’m running Windows, and once I lost the Windows partition altogether and had to reinstall.