VMware Inc has announced the availability of VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1 as a free download. The beta brings support for multiple displays, tools for even easier switching to VMware Fusion, experimental support for DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2 3D acceleration, and more!

VMware Fusion is a VMware desktop product for Intel-based Mac users. What it basically does is that it allows such Macs to run x86 operating systems, like Windows, Linux, NetWare and Solaris, in virtual machines, at the same time as Mac OS X. VMware Fusion runs Windows inside a secure and isolated virtual machine, protecting Mac OS X and the Mac hardware in the event that Windows crashes or becomes unstable. VMware Fusion also gives users the ability to suspend and protect their virtual machines.

In order to further enhance the protection of your computer, you can take a Snapshot of your virtual machine, to save a stable state of your PC that you can quickly return to if something goes wrong. Users can also resume where they left off using the Suspend feature in VMware to freeze the exact state of their virtual machine. As such, they can quickly resume work without restarting Windows and opening all their applications.

VMware Fusion also acts as a powerful "negative" influence over PC users, revealing to them "the ways of the Mac" and eventually convincing them to make the switch. To move from a PC to VMware Fusion, use the free VMware Converter Starter Edition to transform your Windows PC into a VMware Fusion-compatible virtual machine, then copy the virtual machine from your PC to your Mac. To move from Parallels Desktop to VMware Fusion, use the free VMware Importer (beta) to move your Parallels Desktop virtual machines into VMware Fusion virtual machines.

VMware Inc notes that the beta software can be prone to instability and bugs. Therefore you should not run beta software in mission-critical environments. VMware Fusion 2.0 will be a free downloadable upgrade for all VMware Fusion 1.x users the moment it is officially released.