Tired of letting Parallels Desktop 7 hog the spotlight for the last week or so, VMware is nipping at their virtualization heels with the release of Fusion 4 -- turbocharged and refined from the inside out for the ultimate Windows on Mac experience, and available for a promotional price for a limited time only.
Competition is good, or at least that’s what we’re led to believe, and there are few places where the competition is as fierce as in the Mac virtualization world. If you want to run Windows on your Mac without rebooting, both Parallels and VMware have been slugging it out for your heart and mind share for years, and the companies are continuing their tango this month -- first with the release of Parallels Desktop 7 and now, with VMware Fusion 4 bringing up the rear.
While Parallels frequently benchmarks faster than Fusion, VMware isn’t content to remain the scrappy underdog forever, and the latest version claims to be “turbocharged and refined from the inside-out to deliver the easiest, fastest and most reliable experience in running Windows programs on a Mac without rebooting.”
Among the highlights of VMware Fusion 4 is OS X Lion support, including the ability to launch Windows apps from LaunchPad, move from Windows to Mac with a single swipe in Mission Control and beautiful high-resolution icons. Much like Parallels Desktop 7, Fusion 4 also claims to be more Mac-like than ever, from a new App Unity feature to the redesigned user interface and Time Machine-compatible Snapshots.
VMware Fusion 4 isn’t just about new features, either -- the software touts a highly optimized 64-bit engine for multicore processing that’s faster than ever. The company isn’t being shy about boasting 2.5x faster 3D graphics and support for OpenGL 2.1 and DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3 graphics, all of which make version 4 faster than its predecessor.
With more than 90 new features in total, VMware Fusion 4 is available now for a $49.99 promotional price in an effort to clobber the earlier release of Parallels Desktop 7 -- but you’ll have to act fast, because that price is available for a limited time only. If you’re the sort who prefers to try before you buy, a free trial download is also available.
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