Yes the tools definitely still work. I am seeing in the VMX file Apple GPU resolutions are saved so maybe if tools quit working and I needed to resize the display of a VM I could do that by editing the pixel values in the VMX file? Not tried it yet.
Original Message:
Sent: Sep 04, 2024 09:07 PM
From: Technogeezer
Subject: Fusion 13.6 Is Out
I realize I use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse on my iMac and those work in the VMs so maybe I am not missing anything there either?
Probably not. Your BT keyboard and mouse on your Mac will be presented by Fusion to the VM as either PS2 or USB devices (depending on the guest OS). The lack of a BT hub will be missed by those that want to share other types of devices such as BT game controllers, speakers, or other types of devices. The big issue with the virtual BT hub is that it didn't support many of the useful BT device profiles - which effectively made it useless.
IIRC - it was recommended that VMware Tools be installed even if you were going to use the Apple GPU settings. That would get you the soft power operations as well as host-guest shared folders.
I'm surprised that Sequoia guest OS support was part of Fusion 13.6. That leads me to believe the existing legacy VMware Tools still work even though they aren't getting any engineering effort.
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- Paul (technogeezer)
Original Message:
Sent: Sep 04, 2024 10:46 AM
From: gringley
Subject: Fusion 13.6 Is Out
I never used Unity so I am OK there. I am not sure what the consequences of the Bluetooth hub are yet? I realize I use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse on my iMac and those work in the VMs so maybe I am not missing anything there either? Do not need Monterey as a host so OK there. I had been downloading VMtools for Windows when it came out for a couple of years so no loss there on the bundling. I always used Open VMtools for what Linux I did.
For macOS VMtools does useful things - it allows resizing of the display window. The display also seems to auto convert to HiDPI mode but that takes a couple of minutes to occur after login. I perceived that if I shutdown a macOS VM from the Fusion menu with no tools installed it turns off instead of shutting down. I accepted they stopped working on VMtools for Mac as they do not have the ability to virtualize Mac on M1 at this point but I am not happy about it. Apple GPU is also an open issue as that can only be done by editing the vmx file. Seems like that should have been an option in display properties by now? All my "modern era" macOS VMs use Apple GPU as it is clearly a better overall experience.
Original Message:
Sent: Sep 03, 2024 09:44 PM
From: Technogeezer
Subject: Fusion 13.6 Is Out
Here's my take on what Michael Roy said on a VMUG webcast about Fusion 13.6
What you gain:
Official support for Windows Server 2025 as a guest.
Official guest support for Windows 11 23H2. A nothing-burger since it already works, but I guess official support is better late than never. By the way, Windows 11 24H2 works and will be set into the wild soon)
New vmcli command - supposedly an improvement over vmrun that has lots of hooks for creating and managing VMs without having to resort to REST APIs.
The release notes have a number of other official guest OS support additions, but quite honestly those are a nothing-burger as well since they already are known to work with Fusion 13.5.
Support for Sequoia as a host operating system once it's released by Apple.
What's no longer there, but not a real big deal:
"Legacy" VMware Tools are no longer bundled as of Fusion 13.6. My assumption is that's talking about the VMware Tools for Linux (and maybe macOS). Still supported, but you'll have to download them from Broadcom's web site (you don't need a license to do so, if you can download your personal use version of Fusion, you can download VMware Tools). Of course, VMware wants you to use open-vm-tools for Linux but you;ll need VMware Tools for Windows x64/ARM and macOS..
MacOS 12 (Monterey) support as a host operating system -- not surprising since Apple will move Monterey to unsupported the minute that Sequoia is released. VMware has always dropped host operating system support in new Fusion releases for macOS versions that Apple drops support for.
What's no longer there that will not go over well with customers:
Unity mode for Windows x64 guests. This shouldn't be a shock since it was sort-of "previewed" for those that installed the VMware Tools 12.4.5 on Windows 11 x64. This also means that Unity will never come to Windows 11 ARM.
Virtual Bluetooth hub (in Settings > USB & Bluetooth there will be no option to share BT devices on the host with the guest. Personally, this feature never had enough device support for it to work. The workaround seems to be to use a USB BT dongle connected to the VM.
The Fusion Menu Bar application (can't say we weren't warned - and it didn't work with macOS Sonoma any way).
What's (still) not here yet:
MacOS as guest OS on Apple Silicon. Michael Roy hinted that they're still working on it and to keep an eye out next year (maybe a tech preview after the new year???)
Shared folder support for Windows 11 ARM guests. Michael indicated that the feature was close, but not ready yet.
My take:
This release is "meh".-- sorely underwhelming, but at least they aren't making us buy new licenses. Hopefully they've fixed some bugs along the way. They say they value the desktop virtualization products, but they sure don't act like it.
There are going to be a lot of angry customers for loss of even more feature such as Unity and Bluetooth and not delivering sorely needed new features such as shared folders for Windows ARM.
It's not surprising that they've dropped features given where VMware seems to be positioning the desktop virtualization products -- for enterprise developers that are going to use it to develop for VMware's other products or "the cloud". They don't appear to be targeting end users that simply want to run their favorite Windows apps along side macOS. ESXi and the cloud don't do Unity or Bluetooth.
I'll be downloading it and running all my existing ARM virtual machines through it and report back on what I find.
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- Paul (technogeezer)
vExpert 2024
Original Message:
Sent: Sep 03, 2024 08:14 PM
From: gringley
Subject: Fusion 13.6 Is Out
Fusion 13.6 is out. Its release notes raises some questions however. VMtools is depreciated, but wasn't that part of the video support? It is not clear to me what we are losing? My Sequoia VM on Intel has tools installed. I was also curious that "Mac OS 12.0 support has been depreciated." and what that really meant?