14 DAY TRIAL // Vmware Fusion 2, the powerful virtualization solution for Mac OS X, has just received an important update. While just a maintenance release, VMWare Fusion 2.0.3 resolves driverless printing issues, but also adds experimental support for guests of Apple's upcoming OS, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
“VMware Fusion 2.0.3 is a maintenance release of VMware Fusion 2,” reads a post on the company's web site. “It is a free upgrade for all VMware Fusion 1 and VMware Fusion 2 customers,” VMware says, continuing the post with the list of enhancements and fixes.
For once, the latest version of Fusion resolves an issue where driverless printing stops working for users that run Mac OS X 10.5.6, and installed Apple Mac OS X Security Update 2009-001, the changelog reveals. According to VMware, “the shared printers would disappear from Windows. If you configured your printer differently as a workaround, turn on driverless printing feature again by clicking Virtual Machine > Settings, selecting Printers, and selecting the Enabled check box,” the developer explains.
Similarly, another issue with driverless printing has been resolved, VMware claims, where the Enabled check box on Virtual Machine > Settings > Printers might get deselected automatically. Lastly, the company can confirm that VMware Fusion 2.0.3 offers experimental support for Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server as a guest operating system. According to VMware, “you can now run the current Snow Leopard Server builds (32-bit kernel) in a virtual machine.”
VMware Fusion allows Intel Macs to run x86 operating systems, like Windows, Linux, NetWare and Solaris, in a virtual machine, at the same time as Mac OS X. VMware Fusion runs Windows inside a secure and isolated virtual machine. VMware ships with a 12-month complimentary subscription to McAfee VirusScan Plus 2009 antivirus. The software is comparable with Parallels Desktop, another virtualization solution from the folks at Parallels. Both programs are detailed and compared in this review.