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Something I can't find with the site down: Anybody know if the Pro version for Windows offers a VNC server? IIRC, the free version did on Mac, but not Windows. Very useful for remotely controlling a VM that may be connecting to a work VPN.
Not sure, but a good alternative is to enable RDP on the Windows guest. RDP is much faster than VNC also.
 
I stopped using this software when you used to have to buy a new version every damn time a new version of macOS was released.

This is great, may give it a go
 
Even for my relatively small usage of Windows and Linux, I’ve found Parallels a superior experience over VMWare for many years. I’m not a fan of subscription licenses for most software, but Parallels is (unfortunately) one of the few exceptions I make.
 
Lack of folder sharing is really annoying, but I can't complain too much for free. Parallels is a non-option for me given subscription model; I only want to run a couple of freeware programs on Windows.

Gotta go set up an NFS drive or whatever the method is for sharing between the VM and the host.
um, vmware has folder sharing. always has had. Hang on... (I don' t actually *use* it...)

Yeah, that works. Had to fiddle a bit to figure it out. Probably more straightforward on Windows (as in maybe it just shows up in Explorer rather than needing the vmhgfs-fuse command...)

1715788113621.png
 
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Switched to UTM a few months back and havent looked back. I will say though I had been a paying customer for Fusion Pro for years. I needed to be able to create macOS VM's, and Fusion lost that ability in 13, and UTM has filled that need nicely for me.
same. although recall having some issues sharing folders with either a win xp or win 7 vm on M1 Pro that required some kind of work around ? have not tried in quite a while maybe its finally fixed.
 


VMware has announced that its Fusion Pro and Workstation Pro virtualization software is now free for personal use. For those unfamiliar with Fusion, it is designed to allow Mac users to operate virtual machines to run non-macOS operating systems like Windows 11.

vmware-fusion-pro-13.jpg

The decision to make the software free was made by Broadcom, which acquired VMware in November 2023. In a blog post announcing the change, Broadcom said the move was part of a plan to simplify how the company brings VMware apps to market:
Broadcom also said it had discontinued Workstation Player and Fusion Player, although existing customers can upgrade to the more feature-packed Pro version at no extra cost. Meanwhile, VMware Player will remain bundled with Workstation Pro.

Broadcom said that customers who use Fusion and Workstation at/for work will still require a paid commercial subscription, which can be purchased through an authorized Broadcom Advantage partner. For more information, see the VMware website.

Article Link: VMware Fusion Pro 13 Now Freely Available for Personal Use
Has anyone been able to convert their Fusion Player over to the Fusion Pro? The link for the so called directions provides nothing.
 
They must be inundated by the sheer volume of Mac users setting up accounts to download this as their site is returning an unknown error :D
 
Honestly this is great news, I've been trying to find a better alternative to VirtualBox. 🥹
 
Something I can't find with the site down: Anybody know if the Pro version for Windows offers a VNC server? IIRC, the free version did on Mac, but not Windows. Very useful for remotely controlling a VM that may be connecting to a work VPN.
Yes, VMWare Pro for Windows has a VNC server built-in:
1715789546816.png
 
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Given the vast customer frustration over other changes which took place immediately after the Broadcom purchase, I'd have to say that this is certainly an interesting attempt at damage control. How well it accomplishes that goal remains to be seen, of course.
 
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this means the product is dead and will have no future updates. VMWARE as a company is not doing too good financially as a company.
 
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Its funny, but once upon a time, VMWare had the better software, until apple really started flip flopping from nvidia to ati & back with every hardware update. Then Parallels got their act together and outperformed VMware, and almost immediately became a completely terrible company to do business with. So we‘d buy a dozen seats of VMware but then run a cracked version of Parallels, to support the good guys but use the better performing software. When Apple went all ARM, we delighted in knowing Parallels would finally crumble. …but of course when they fold and their insane authorization program can‘t find their registration server, anyone who paid for their software will be SOL. But at least VMware will still exist! and now, VMware is at the mercy of Broadcom. It was a good few years in the sun.
 
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this means the product is dead and will have no future updates. VMWARE as a company is not doing too good financially as a company.
This doesn't matter one bit. Broadcom owns VMware now, this isn't VMware acting .. it's Broadcom.

See my above post about Broadcom being a horrible company.
 
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There are alternative download URLs here.

I have downloaded the Mac version and verified the checksum with the one listed on the official Broadcom download page and they match:

SHA-256: baaa201c797af8e32a2ec3ae78c69bfedbe5c5c7960c3673885bd84e42ddfbb9
MD5: 0601c5b92139b3cbab3eba68217f6576

PS: To check the file once downloaded, open a terminal in the download directory and run one of the following commands to generate the corresponding checksum, then compare it with the official ones. They must match exactly:

Code:
shasum -a 256 VMware-Fusion-13.5.2-23775688_universal.dmg

Or

Code:
md5 VMware-Fusion-13.5.2-23775688_universal.dmg

i can vouch for this - those checksums are exactly what appear in my broadcom account's download area for fusion pro 13.5.2. unfortunately i still can not download from broadcom's website. when i tick "accept terms and conditions" it just spins forever with the animated broadcom logo.

anyway this is very good news - i owned licenses for prior versions of vmware and about 3 weeks ago i tried to recover them from broadcom's support website and predictably i just could not do it. their support portal is a mess.

oh and i tried to boot windows 10 (x86-64) under UTM/QEMU on my M1 mac studio and had a lot of problems getting windows to install. when i finally got that going i found that it was so slow as to be completely unusable. which is weird because i think way back when i first got the M1 studio i was able to boot windows 7 and although slow, it was more usable. i'm going to use an old intel macbook and boot my bootcamp windows 10 installation with VMware (fingers crossed)
 
Not sure, but a good alternative is to enable RDP on the Windows guest. RDP is much faster than VNC also.
Problem is that connecting to my corp VPN shuts off local traffic, so I can't use RDP from within the guest. Having a VNC server associated with but external to the VM lets me remotely do whatever I want with the guest's networking, restart / shut it down, etc. Sounds like Pro will do it for me, though, so all's well (as long as it survives).
 
Has anyone been able to convert their Fusion Player over to the Fusion Pro? The link for the so called directions provides nothing.
the in-app upgrade might work. It did on my intel mac but not on an apple silicon one.

if it doesn't work, look at the vmware log file before the error; there's a URL to a file called com.vmware.fusion.zip.tar. Download that. (curl -O <url>). unpack it twice (a zip inside a tar, but Finder can do it) and inside com.vmware.fusion/payload there's the app. Drag that to /Applications, removing the old one.

Remove your Player license key. It's in /Library/Preferences/VMWare Fusion.In both cases i moved the old app and the license key to trash rather than just deleting, just in case, but it was fine.
 
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Well here's something fun.. with a capital "F.U.".

Click on the "Download" link for VMware Workstation or Fusion from the Vmware site and it redirects you to some Digital River site:
 
um, vmware has folder sharing. always has had. Hang on... (I don' t actually *use* it...)

Yeah, that works. Had to fiddle a bit to figure it out. Probably more straightforward on Windows (as in maybe it just shows up in Explorer rather than needing the vmhgfs-fuse command...)

View attachment 2378428

I found this note on https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-F...UID-15AB9C0F-B0AF-4E9D-A011-5E8D9483A4AF.html


Shared Folder is not supported for Windows 11 ARM GOS on Apple Silicon hosts.

and yes the Sharing option is missing in system settings
 
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If you're running Linux anyway, you should investigate QEMU, I am running all sorts of VMs on my Unraid box with great performance.
Yes, it is a good option. I tried QEMU but my main uses case revolves around GPU. Maintaining Host/VM drivers/libraries is a pain and interoperability is not simple. I rarely need windows, just boot quickly if I need to from an external drive and run or test some code on GPU in windows. My Linux mostly hosts a cluster of containers, that can leverage host GPU libraries/drivers seamlessly.
 
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