New VMware Fusion Beta

I have been using the VMware Fusion Beta since its first release. Most everyone else around here jumped on the Parallels band wagon. Rather than spending money on Parallels, I decided to give the Fusion product a trial run on my new Mac Pro tower. I am no stranger to the virtualization technology sector. I had to setup MS Virtual PC for Mac users several years ago to allow them to perform essential work tasks on the campus student information system (previously windows only). That approach was slow because of the emulation of x86 as opposed to current technology which does not need an emulation step as the hosted OS and the processor on the Mac are both x86 aware. After that I experienced VMware GSX, Workstation, and ESX/Virtual Infrastructure 3. It is important to my work to be able to use certain Windows apps on a regular basis. I knew this going into the switch to the Mac platform. Bootcamp was already a viable option, but not really the preferred method. Parallels was already out and being used on campus. I was safe on the switch, but I wanted to use a VMware product if at all possible. After experiencing a support call with VMware and attending VM World, it was apparent that VMware has its act together and develops solid products. So I downloaded and installed the Fusion Beta. Since then, I have updated to the latest version almost upon announcement on the support forums. This latest update was almost magical. Previous updates had seen incremental changes to performance and exposed features in the virtual machine configuration panels. Beta number four brought a new feature called Unity. For Parallels users, it's kind of like Coherence done right. Unity is Expose aware and doesn't present the mac user with a confusing Start bar in the mac environment. Instead the Start Menu was integrated into the more Mac friendly Applications menu in the Fusion menu bar. Of course, Unity was the eye candy feature, but we were also give a feature-complete virtual machine configuration panel and new OS installation wizards. In addition to the visible changes, performance has been increased as well. For any Mac users that have a need for specific Windows Apps, Fusion is a great option.