VMware Fusion 3.1

VMware Fusion is a virtualization environment for the Mac. It is a product specifically developed for the Mac. Fusion allows you to install a Windows operating system that runs within Mac OS X. You can even share your files with Windows. Both OSs run simultaneously, and you can even assign an IP address in your home network to your virtual machine.

Installing an operating system on your VMware Fusion is incredibly easy. All you really need is a copy of the OS and some 10 minutes. Really, that's all it takes on the latest generation Macs. You can even preload your serial key and your username for a totally unattended installation. Once the new system is set up, VMware Fusion installs VM Tools, a set of applications that help the integration between your Windows VM and Mac OS X. You can drag and drop files between the two OSs.

Virtual Machines can be run in full-screen or in a very innovative mode called Unity. In Unity, all your Windows applications are run as if they were Mac applications. They will go to the Doc and you can call on them from the VMware menu.

The newer versions of VMware support all major operatiing systems, like all versions of Windows and most distributions of Linux. The installation wizards are of great help.

You may think that running a VM machine within Mac OS X will kill your system. Well, there are two sides of that assumption. If you have plenty of RAM, you will not even feel the VM running. If you are running a stock Mac, chances are that the system will get slow at times. You can assign a specific amount of RAM to VMs, to avoid getting your system slow, but remember Windows is a memory hog. You can run an unlimited number of VMs.

My favorite feature is Snapshots. With Snapshots you can save the "state" of a VM, so you can go back to it at any time. So if Window crashes, which is bound to happen, you can simply restore your computer. It works like a charm.