Fusion 10 - reasons to 'upgrade' from Fusion 8?

[GlennyG]

Running Fusion 8 for my windows 2012 development machines.  Works fine.

Noticed that VMWare have released Fusion 10 but I can't see any new features.  Some blather about Windows 10 support,  but I don't/won't use that.  Some really trivial updates which aren't of interest -- API(!), network testing.

Any other reason for paying money to VMWare?  Or shall I skip this for another build?

[wila]

Hi,

Main reasons beyond latest Windows 10 support are:

- running on a supported version of Fusion (Fusion 8.5.x EOL was 2018/02/25, see also https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/support/product-lifecycle-matrix.pdf )

- Fusion 10 is the only version that is supported on High Sierra

- Getting Security updates as those won't come anymore for Fusion 8 now that it is EOL.

Then there's the specific features for Fusion 10 that you can find at VMware's Fusion 10 What's New page : VMware Workstation | VMware Fusion

--

Wil

[GlennyG]

But it works,  so the 'not supported' argument is moot.  Similarly the "security" arguments are null and void as it's used to develop Windows applications on a dev machine.

I didn't know it wouldn't work on High Sierra.  For some reason it's working fine on my Mac which is running High Sierra 13.3.

Sorry;  it still appears that there's no compelling reason to migrate.

I suppose the next version of Fusion will be rentalware.

[wila]

Hi,

No need to say sorry, I don't work for VMware, just trying to summarize the reasons for you.

If you don't use the internet on your development machine I might agree, otherwise I think the security arguments still count, but that's my opinion on the matter.

Of course it is up to you to assess the security landscape and deem something important or not.

PS: re. but it works, yes there are reports that an existing install of Fusion 8 on macOS that was upgraded to High Sierra can work, but installing fresh will be problematic due to apple's new kernel signing requirements. Not supported just means that.. all problems you bump into are yours, only support that can be offered in that scenario is via this forum.

--

Wil

[GlennyG]

Sorry Wil - nothing personal :-)

Quite cynical about the current rash of so-called security issues over the past few months;  Meltdown & Spectre basically not being a threat to most people but the fix slowing systems down.  Security people are past masters of the game of FUD.

VMWare's been playing the annual upgrade game for a while now and I'm a little tired of minimal reasons to 'upgrade'.  In fact the last couple of upgrades have been imposed by Apple's changes to their kernel.  Apple upgrade for "free",  VMWare charging handsomely to 'fix' the problem.

Can't remember the last time VMWare updated Fusion and added a significant new feature.

Would definitely pay if the performance improved.  Fed up with Windows 2012 reporting minimal CPU,  but Mac's Activity Monitor showing >100% and the fan roaring.

[wila]

Hi,

Would definitely pay if the performance improved.  Fed up with Windows 2012 reporting minimal CPU,  but Mac's Activity Monitor showing >100% and the fan roaring.

FWIW I've not seen this on Windows 2012.

Can you elaborate?

What kind of host is this and what is your Windows 2012  VM config (the .vmx settings)

Have you tried decreasing the amount of cores / vCPU on the VM?

--

Wil

[ColoradoMarmot]

Meltdown and Spectre are very real threats in virtualized environments, and the patches need to be applied.  Exploits are coming.

VMWare didn't charge for Fusion 8.5 - they skipped that year's cycle.  Apple's upgrades are baked into the premium cost of the hardware itself, Fusion has to find funding somewhere.  They could have easily moved to a subscription model like Office and Photoshop, but haven't done so.

In this case, it's a compatibility issue.  Fusion 8.5 won't work properly on High Sierra, especially for APFS.

[GlennyG]

It's now August 2018 and in a month or two we'll have a new version of Mac OS and VMWare will be handing around the begging bowl again.

I've not "updated" (i.e. paid VMWare) to the version 10 "ultra-light" update.  For some amazing reason my Mac,  running High Sierra 10.13.6,  is still running with VMWare Fusion 8.5.10 without issue (daily use of various VMs for DotNet development).  I can only put this down to there being no significant update between version 8.5 and 10.

Sorry to bleat on about this but I do wish VMWare wouldn't feed us this constant update nonsense.  I'll pay only when there's a significant update that's to *my* benefit.

BTW I originally used Parallels but got fed up with their constant gouging so switched over to VMWare.

[Rossasaurus]

Sierra 13.6 on Late 2012 MBP

Fusion 8 still working beautifully, with Windows 10 installed, also running well, and Ubuntu 18.x as well

[Rossasaurus]

I'm running Windows 10 in Fusion 8 and Zero issues so far.