Fusion

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  • 1.  Unitity for macOS Guests?

    Posted Oct 09, 2018 07:53 AM

    As far as I could find out Unity Mode is only available for Windows Guests. Now with Apple making more and more legacy software like iWork '09 unusable on modern macOS (High Sierra, Mojave) it becomes all the more important to have a virtual machine available running an older version like el Capitan so these (particularly 32-bit) programs can still be used (example: modern Pages.app still lacks some 100+ features from the iWork '09 version). Having Unity Mode available would be really really great. Double clicking a .pages file would open it transparently right there in the old version inside the VM.

    Is there a way to achieve this? Officially (did I miss something?) or with a hidden pref or even a hack?

    Thanks



  • 2.  RE: Unitity for macOS Guests?
    Best Answer

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Oct 09, 2018 09:21 PM

    Apologies, but this isn't remotely possible.

    Unity is very complex, OS-specific feature, and requires OS-specific (Win 7, 8, 10) code shipping in VMware Tools to operate properly.



  • 3.  RE: Unitity for macOS Guests?

    Posted Oct 10, 2018 09:48 AM

    Thanks for your (disappointing) answer. I am fully aware that having Unity Mode for macOS guests is a complex thing. But maybe with the current discussions in the Mac community about deprecating valuable productivity software and "dumbing down" macOS more and more there might be a market for macOS guest Unity Mode?

    ---markus---



  • 4.  RE: Unitity for macOS Guests?

    Posted Oct 10, 2018 03:09 PM

    It's not a matter of market, it's a matter of ability.  If I remember right (been a while since I talked to an engineer about it), the issue is that Apple doesn't provide an API that can be underlaid with a virtualization engine easily.  That means it's more a matter of emulation, which is a far harder lift.

    Folks who are going to be running out of date, unsupported OS's and software need to make sure that those VM's are in isolation mode - no network access ideally, and definitely no internet access.  Otherwise they're at high risk for compromise.     For example, I have one, very old piece of software that I run in Windows XP (ok, it's a game).  That VM doesn't even have host networking activated.