VMware Fusion is one of the most popular hypervisor softwares available for macOS, which allows users to run virtual machines with not only Apple’s operating system, but also Windows and Linux. Now the company is taking its next step in bringing VMWare Fusion to M1 Macs with the first beta release compatible with Apple Silicon.
For now, VMware Fusion for Macs M1 will be available as a closed beta, which means that not everyone can download it. VMware Fusion and Workstation Manager Michael Roy (via The Register) shared on Twitter the link to an online form for those interested in trying VMWare Fusion beta for Macs M1.
According to Roy, a public beta release will be available in about two weeks, which could mean that the official release might come by the end of this year. However, unlike VMware Fusion for Intel Macs, the Apple Silicon version has some limitations that users need to be aware of.
Probably the most notable limitation is that VMware Fusion will not provide support for running Windows virtual machines on Apple Silicon Macs. This is because Microsoft does not sell official licenses of Windows 10 ARM. Although you can manually install Windows 10 ARM using VMware Fusion, there will be no official drivers compatible with M1 Macs.
VMware Fusion beta for M1 Macs also lacks support for macOS Monterey due to API incompatibilities, and it is unclear if this will be added with a future update. For now, the graphics will be CPU-based as support for GPU-equipped VMs is still under development.
Users who want to run Windows or macOS Monterey virtual machines on M1 Macs have Parallels as their only option at this moment, as the software was updated last month with support for the Apple Silicon platform.
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