Mac Owners... VMware Fusion

ABV · 08-13-2009

This is a call to all of the Mac owners on here...

I just bought a new 13" Macbook Pro and I love it! I'm curious to see who here has used VMware Fusion and what their opinions are. I watched the video on their website and it looks like a great tool to run windows apps on my mac. I basically want to be able to run MS office without too much hassle. It looks like I can set it up to where I can actually add the programs (word, excel, etc.) to the dock, so I can run them just like mac programs. I'm just curious to see if its really that easy and how people like it.

http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

Thanks for the help.

Ps. I'm loving the aluminum body and multi touch track pad. And after an hour or two of getting used to it, I think OSX is simply awesome!

hellomynameis · 08-13-2009

Works perfectly for me. Though, I would urge you to buy the educational license if you can (no difference, just cheaper). Only caution is that VMWare's customer service is terrible. You shoudln't need to deal with them, though. Fusion seems to be more flexible than Parallels and I'd recommend fusion over parallels for that reason.

I had to deal with customer service because I bought the full license, realized there was an educational license we qualified for and instead of crediting me money back I had to buy another license and request a refund that took over 3 months. Was just a huge pain and irritated me greatly. Haven't had to deal with them since, though.

**scheides** · 08-13-2009

Parallels used to be mega awesome, and it just kinda sucks now. I use VMWare Fusion regularly and it works great! However....you know they make MS Office for the mac right?

ABV · 08-13-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by scheides

However....you know they make MS Office for the mac right?

Yeah, I thought about that, but I just bought a full version for windows last year. I also tried openoffice.org, but I'm not really a fan of that. I figured if I could use office 2007 with fusion, then life would be good. Plus I have some other windows software I want to use too.

Also, I saw the eduction discount which is awesome and since I'm going to school right now, it works out nice.

Thanks for the help guys! I'm going to go ahead and get it.

SnoEclipse · 08-13-2009

try virtualbox, http://www.virtualbox.org

I believe the college price for Office/mac is something close to $60-

iceminion · 08-13-2009

You pay for software?

ABV · 08-13-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by iceminion

You pay for software?

Yes.

tpunx99GSX · 08-13-2009

Best bet if you want to run windows apps.... BUY A PC!!
Macs suck. nuff said.

john · 08-14-2009

^^^ +1

I am not a huge fan of macs mostly due to the eliminations of shortcuts in MS Excel. They may have fixed these but IDK. I was in class with a kid one time who had a new mac laptop but used MS office apps on his old windows unit. Maybe something about not having a Ctrl key which is used with most shortcuts. If you are going for a business degree, buy a PC.

Software at the U of M is free to download (07 office "best edition", Vista enterprise, etc). I paid an additional $5 for a burned copy though. They include the licence numbers, etc.

**Tachyon** · 08-14-2009

I think you'll be pleased with the product. We run VMware on some of the Macs here at work. For what it is, it works very well and required virtually zero configuration out of the 'box' to work with our office.

Yea there is Office for Mac, but I would rip my eyeballs out if I was forced to use Entourage! Just rubbish compared to Outlook...

hellomynameis · 08-14-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by john

^^^ +1

I am not a huge fan of macs mostly due to the eliminations of shortcuts in MS Excel. They may have fixed these but IDK. I was in class with a kid one time who had a new mac laptop but used MS office apps on his old windows unit. Maybe something about not having a Ctrl key which is used with most shortcuts. If you are going for a business degree, buy a PC.

What? Now shortcuts? No control key? What in the world are you talking about?

I use a mac keyboard on my windows desktop at work. Works perfectly...control key and all.

Use Google docs for an office suite, it's free, your documents are available anywhere an internet connection is, and it's at least as featured packed as most people will ever need. Throw in Mellel and bookends for some nice word processing and and you're set.

john · 08-14-2009

^^^^ There is/was a BIG limitation for MACs in MS Excell. I wouldn't buy a Mac so I am not sure what it is. Have been by a few people. It probably isn't in the keyboard that matters, something in the programming. It wouldn't suprise me if MS disabled the shortcuts in the MAC version of Excel to keep the monopoly of windows machines in the business world going....