|
Rating:  - Works well...but not for gaming.
VMWare does a solid job of fulfilling its stated goals, except that it does NOT run Windows/Dos games well at all.
Rating:  - S-L--O---O-----O----W
I'm not completely new to Mac, but many of my Windows PC apps are not available for Mac. I thought this would be the answer to make my conversion to Mac affordable and productive. So far, in the past 4 days since I created my virtual Win machine (VMWare v. 2 - the product I purchased on Amazon is v. 1, and you get a free downlaed update to v.2) on my MacBook Pro, 4 GB ram, 2.5 Ghz, I have a grand total of 1.2 hours of actual productivity. The rest of the time (35+ hours) is spent waiting for the Virtual Windows machine to respond to keystrokes and mouse clicks.
Not being a complete dummy, I figured my settings were not quite right, so I scoured the online support features, data bases and forums for solutions. Based on the discussion there, I am NOT the only one with this problem. I have made the suggested modifications to the settings that were recommended on the web site, and every variation and combination thereof, only to have the VM power up and be blazing fast until I suspend the virtual machine, or the Mac goes to sleep or the screen saver starts. This is a laptop, so energy savings are a priority. . . hibernating is a fact of laptop life.
Taking over 2 hours to shut down Windows in the virtual machine is NOT ok. Neither is having to restart the Mac and VM four or more times a day. And every time I restart Windows, I am requested to install and then update VM Tools. . .why?
I will be trying tech support tomorrow because they aren't open now and they don't have online support, but right now I am so frustrated and annoyed that I bought this product AND my new MacBook based on the reviews for this product and they don't come close to being useful or reliable. As I have been writing this review, it has taken 12 minutes to boot up the windows virtual machine. I am not a happy camper.
Rating:  - Simply the best way to run Windows on a Mac
There are times when, against your better instincts, you must run some Windows application on a Mac. You could use Apple's boot camp feature, but that requires rebooting the computer. VMware Fusion allows you to simultaneously run Windows and Mac OS X on the same computer, and you can switch back and forth between the two, the same way as you would between Safari and Firefox. Absolutely amazing, and works flawlessly!
Rating: - It's okay
It's okay. It allows me to run Windows xp as a window in on my Mac desktop, but I sometimes have problems with VMware Tools. I have 3 printers connected to my Mac and sometimes VMware Fusion allows me to use all three, but this morning, it said I was only connected to one printer. Also, when I plug a flash drive in, it shows on my Mac desktop, but not on Windows. That's a problem because I use Windows to run Quicken and it doesn't allow me to back it up to a flash drive.
Rating: - The perfect solution for a MAC owner who must run windows apps
This product is everything it claims to be. It makes running alternative operating systems a breeze. The support for Windows, in fact, is exceptional. Installing this software has enabled me to run many windows apps right on my iMac as if they were running on a dedicated windows PC. In fact, they run faster than my other computer runs windows by a large margin. In addition to installing and running windows, I've also used it to install Ubuntu Linux. That, too, runs without a hitch. Most importantly, for me, all the applications I had to have a windows machine to run, perform perfectly on the iMac with this software. It even allows me to watch Netflix "watch now" movies on the MAC. That's significant because, for the time being, NetFlix doesn't support that feature on Mac OS-X. If you need to run Windows applications but really want a MAC instead of a PC, this is a "must have".
|
