The VMware Fusion team recently announced that the new beta version of VMware Converter (beta 2) will allow importing of Virtual PC 2007 based virtual machines, as well as Parallels Desktop 2.5 and Parallels 3.0 based virtual machines.
This means that you can now easily convert old virtual machines that you might have running on G3/G4/G5 PowerPC Macs, as well as convert newer virtual machines on Intel Macs running Parallels to VMware Fusion – the better product in my honest opinion.
The operating systems supported are Windows XP Home and Pro, Windows Sever 2003, Windows 2000 and you also get the added bonus of being able to import Microsoft Windows Vista virtual machines from Parallels.
Take that with a grain of salt though… I do currently work for a VMware partner 🙂 On the other hand, VMware Fusion did just receive the annual MacWorld Editors’ Choice Award – you be the judge.
Here are the release notes from the VMware blog:
VMware Importer Beta 2 allows for the importation of Virtual PC 7.0-based virtual machines with the following operating systems:
- Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
- Windows XP Service Pack 2
- Windows Server 2003
VMware Importer Beta 2 also lets users import virtual machines created using Parallels Desktop for Mac 2.5 and 3.0, including:
- Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
- Windows XP Service Pack 2
- Windows Server 2003
- Windows Vista
Check out the VMware Importer Beta 2 landing page here, and give it a whirl!
And, as always, users looking to convert a physical PC to run as a virtual machine under VMware Fusion can use VMware Converter Starter Edition to do just that in a snap.
Questions and comments are always welcome at the VMware Fusion community forums, where Fusion users come to talk Mac virtualization.”