VMware Fusion 2 Beta 2

Leopard Server now supported plus better HW utilization and Windows-to-Mac data sharing.The latest VMware-on-Mac beta is currently available as a free download, adding the promised OS 10.5 server virtualization (enabled by Apple's licensing relaxation and matching the latest release of Parallels Server.)

The VMware site has a number of snazzy clips posted on a highlight reel for those interested in looking before they leap. The beta install is pretty seamless, and the best new functionality in my opinion is data mirroring, where user-enabled mirrored folders and standard picture/document/music/desktop folders can be directly shared between the Mac host OS and Windows VMs.

Other goodies include multiple snapshots for timely rollbacks and an AutoProtect function for kicking off snapshots at predefined intervals. This is good for those of us who, ahem, occasionally forget to save an instance before a major tweak or install.

I haven't played with the improved DirectX 9.0 support, but VMware claims heavy-requirement games will play if you have the right Mac hardware under the hood, while 2D video moves into HD territory.

Additional improvements include support for 4-way SMP, 64-bit LINUX OSes, and 4 virtual CPUs plus 8GB of RAM per VM. My personal wish list item for Mac virtualization? Bare metal, please. In the meantime I'm happy with the VM performance of all players for personal Macs and light duty use on Xserves.Leopard Server now supported plus better HW utilization and Windows-to-Mac data sharing.