(Taken from vmware.com)

VMware Fusion 1.0 Release Candidate Now Available

VMware Fusion 1.0 Release Candidate (build 50460) is now available. VMware Fusion is now feature complete with the Release Candidate and we are driving towards general availability in August as we previously announced.

Download VMware Fusion 1.0 Release Candidate (build 50460) here:
http://www.vmware.com/go/mac-rc

The VMware Fusion Release notes with the most details and list of known issues are here:
http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/...es_fusion.html

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR PREVIOUS BETA USERS:

Due to changes in VMware Fusion 1.0 Release Candidate for Unity, all beta users MUST update their virtual machines to the release candidate VMware Tools and quit and re-launch VMware Fusion in order for Unity to work as described later. Perform the following steps:

1) Install the Release Candidate (build 50460)
2) Power on your virtual machine
3) Once Windows boots, go to Virtual Machine>Install VMware Tools
4) The VMware Tools installer will start and click Next to proceed.
5) After the installation is complete, click No when asked to restart your virtual machine
6) Go to Virtual Machine>Shut Down Guest to shut down your virtual machine
7) Once the virtual machine is powered off, quit VMware Fusion
8) Launch VMware Fusion, select your updated virtual machine in the virtual machine library, and click Run
9) Now experience all that Unity has to offer!

What’s New in the VMware Fusion 1.0 Release Candidate

Unity Improvements – The seamless way to run Windows applications on your Mac:

Drag and Drop: Drag and drop files from Finder windows onto Windows applications or Windows Explorer windows.

Launch Windows Applications from the VMware Fusion dock icon: Click and hold or right-click on the VMware Fusion dock icon, select your VM and get access to the launcher and the complete Programs menu for that virtual machine.

Extend Unity to more versions of Windows: The release candidate provides experimental support for Unity on Windows 2000, Windows XP 64-bit, Windows Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit), and Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit). See the release notes for known issues with experimental support for Unity.

Launcher and Application Menu Improvements: Windows program icons now appear in the launcher and the Applications menu.

Numerous bugs with keyboard issues, redraw, minimizing to the dock, and window ordering have also been fixed with the Release Candidate.

A new hidden option to always show the Windows task bar in Unity. To enable the task bar always:
1) In the Windows guest, go to: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Tools. NOTE: The Application Data folder won’t be visible unless Windows is set to display hidden files and folders in Windows Explorer.
2) Open tools.conf in Notepad.
3) Add the following line unity.showTaskbar = "true" and save and close the tools.conf file. Restart your Windows guest.
4) Next time you enter into the Unity view, VMware Fusion will show the Windows task bar.

Better Mac Integration:
Now compatible with System-wide Keyboard Shortcuts: You can now use Command Tab, Exposé, and your favorite keyboard shortcuts like Control-Space for Quicksilver and LaunchBar when in a virtual machine is grabbed or in full screen mode. You can also hide VMware Fusion when grabbed or in full screen mode.

Use Control and Command Click for multi-button mouse support: VMware Fusion now supports Control-Click go send a right mouse click and Command-Click to send a middle mouse click to your virtual machines.

NOTE: The new keyboard and mouse functionality can be disabled in the VMware Fusion>Preferences menu if you desire all keyboard and mouse input be sent exclusively to the virtual machine.

Alt-Gr now supported on European keyboards: The right Enter key (otherwise known as the ⌤ key) is remapped to Alt-Gr on Mac laptops. This is overridden when Num Lock is used to enable numeric keypad support.

NOTE: This feature can be disabled by editing ~/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/preferences and adding the following line:

pref.mapISONumpadEnterToAltGrEnabled = "FALSE"

Improved Boot Camp performance:
The Release Candidate adds improved disk performance when using Boot Camp virtual machines, which improves boot time and applications will launch faster. NOTE: We recommend you let VMware Fusion create a new Boot Camp virtual machine for your existing partition to get the best settings and performance. See the release notes for more details.

Experimental 3D support restored for Intel GMA 950 graphics cards:
Back by popular demand, users with Intel GMA 950 graphics can re-enable experimental 3D support. However, you are now warned that Intel GMA 950 does not fully support OpenGL 1.4 and that you may encounter issues.

Improved experimental support for running on Mac OS X Leopard:
Addressed in beta 4.1, but VMware Fusion now installs and runs on the WWDC Mac OS X Leopard release.

Fixed USB problems when running on Mac OS X 10.4.10 and later:
Addressed in beta 4.1, VMware Fusion has been updated to support the latest USB stack introduced with the Santa Rosa MacBook Pros and with Mac OS X 10.4.10.

Improved Resume from Suspended State:
Virtual machines now resume completely in the foreground to get you up and running as quickly as possible with complete speed in your virtual machines.

Optimize Memory Use for Your Needs:
You can now choose to optimize memory usage for either virtual disk performance or for Mac OS X application use. In most cases for regular use and disk intensive applications, the default to optimize for virtual disk use is ideal and improves performance. If your Mac is low on memory (1 GB or less) or you use memory intensive Mac applications, choose to optimize memory for Mac OS X applications.

Other Improvements:
- Use Command-G or Virtual Machine>Grab Input to move your mouse and keyboard focus to the guest.
- Option to reset all warnings and hidden messages.

Thumbs up

About to upgrade.

Noice Can't wait for the full version in August. Just purchased the VMWare. Feeling a lot better about this than parallels who wants to charge $50 for an upgrade less than a year after buying it!

Does anyone know what the upgrade policy is/will be for VMWare?

It's one of my biggest concerns with Parallels, since it has only been around for about a year and a half and is already up to v3.

Also, their pricing seems a bit off for the Australian Dollar. I think I'd rather pay for VMWare in US dollars.

I am wondering the same thing. I would hope that you get upgrades for free up to version 2. I will probably get it all the same before Aug, $80 is a bit out of my student price range, but US$40 is not so bad
- Berwyck

Does it come with Windows? I half got the impression that it did.

No it doesn't. BYO OS.

So, is the new RC1 now a better option than Parallels v3?

I dont know actually.. I've been using both.. and well, I'd say, even though parallels 3 is buggier and sluggier than the previous version, I still prefer Paralles 3 for XP (in particular for gaming i.e. Deus-EX ) but VMware fusion is much quicker/nicer with Vista (performance wise, sorry no Aero yet). but the coherence that Fusion has (called Unity) isn't as streamlined as coherence.. only plus note Unity has, is that any window/folder open in the vm session can be treated as independent folders/apps in say Expose...

i brought last week and installed and its beautiful

after trying BETA , I ordered the VMware

I purchased a few weeks back, as I am not sure I'll be able to get code for free as employee. They couldn't say if it will be offered until after GA, so I thought it would be wise to buy now incase I have to buy later at full price.

So which is the best now? Parallels 3, or VM Fusion 1...I know it's early days for Fusion, but very curious, since Parallels is expensive, really.

I like VMware Fusion RC1

I've used Parallels 3 and I just don't think it's very Mac-like. Feels sluggish and not as smooth as VMware to me. My pick is VMware. Give it a go, it's beta/free at the moment to try.

i can say just try both versions and choose which one you like


for me its VM Fusion and u will pay halfprice if u decided to buy now

coherence in parallels is better than unity to the extent that it lets you access the start menu from the dock, as opposed to some propietary half-arse start menu :\

and launch? WTF?!?!? no open gl either, so that doesn't help me.

I wish fusion was improved in those fields, but sadly no.. (nevertheless, I'll wait till the final version, and still got my retail license).