12.22.06
VMware Fusion Beta 1 Evaluation
With the release of the VMware Fusion Beta, I am in the process of evaluating it on my Macbook. So far as initial releases go, it’s interesting. I have installed and configured Ubuntu Linux onto a 5 gig virtual disk using Fusion. It’s comparable to Parallels Desktop, but this is obviously a beta. Things don’t look quite as nicely polished as they do on Paralells, but I expect by the time VMware releases Fusion most of that will be fixed. Performance seems good so far, though I’m not doing anything terribly demanding of the system. Just a simple LAMP setup to test things out. As a caveat anyone wanting to install the Ubuntu Server version will need to make an adjustment to grub’s config file. On the initial reboot after I installed Ubuntu Server, I got a kernel panic on an acpi component. I simply edited the grub config file at /boot/grub/menu.lst and added the “noacpi” kernel parameter to the line for my kernel. Once I did that it booted up successfully and no problems since.
Fusion seems to cause the fans on my Macbook to go into overdrive when compared to Parallels. It happens whenever I get any sort of load going on the Ubuntu server. I will have to create the same setup in parallels and test things. So far, running Windows XP, using Parallels, my Macbook’s fans don’t seem to run as much as they do once I have Ubuntu booted on Fusion. Running both at the same time keeps the fans on at the highest setting, pretty much non-stop. Obviously I’m putting a strain on the system, but you’d think it would alternate the fans a little… I only have 2 virtual machines going, and I was hoping to be able to run 4 at a time on a regular basis. The fans will be a bit of a let down, but I still love my Macbook.
I am going to change the blog around a bit, I want to get a custom design for the site, but with the holidays and work, I’m lucky to get time to post articles, much less change things around.