Downloading now, should have it in 3 minutes. I like to see what the alternatives are. May switch when final release if it proves to be a better program than parallels.
Will edit after trying out:
Edit 1:
Install - Very easy reasonably quick.
Upon First open it immediately recognises the Bootcamp partition. Will let me boot straight away. I altered some settings so it has the same system available as my parallels setup.
Booting takes a long time in comparison to parallels. The system is very sluggish, this is with debugging turned off.
Setup: 1024 mb Ram, 1 virtual processor, 3d support enabled, VMware tools installed. This is on my C2D 2.16 ghz iMac with 2gb Ram and 256 Vram.
Connects to the vpn, not having any trouble doing what i normally do in windows, except it is slower than parallels.
For my next edit i will install XP using the automated installer. For reference i did this yesterday, as it happens, in Parallels from a .iso of an install disk. It took a total of 16 minutes to install XP, very pleased there.
Edit 2:
Point about installing the VMware tools, bit of a pain not having mouse support at all during this process (initail boot from bootcamp partition), have to remember the old tab and space tricks.
Subsequent booting times have fallen and are more in line with parallels. They are still generally slower than parallels but not by such a large margin.
As mentioned below seems to co-exist with parallels nicely, no fighting. The installation of XP from the .iso went smoothly and apart from entering a few details at the beginning such as desired user name and password along with the activation key was totally unattended which is good.
A bonus over parallels is that the automatic installation sets up the user-name and password for you, rather than the default administrator that you get with parallels.
Installation time:
Parallels: 16 mins
Fusion: 34 mins
Time saved from a usually cd install with manual input, based on my experience of 55 minutes
Parallels: 39 mins
Fusion: 21 min
The whole process was overall far too slow form my liking, but as people should only do this once or twice not so much of an issue. I however seem to do this lots, but that is because i like testing various features, programs and settings. There is mouse support when installing the tools this time, bonus.
Point worth noting The host operating system, i.e. OS X, is noticeably less responsive while VMware Fusion is running in comparison to when parallels is running.
Vmware fusion is a lot faster when booting from a virtual harddrive but it is about the same as parallels in that respect.
Anyway I'm off to the local apple store now to get some supplies, if anyone wants any questions answered or tests done i will try upon my return
