VMware Fusion 2 and Snow Leopard – Better?

I’m eagerly awaiting the FedEx truck to bring my Family Pack of Snow Leopard to my door. While I’m doing so, I’m researching a few of the apps I use most on my Mac.

VMware Fusion is a great product. It lets me do the things that I require Windows for without me having to own a PC to do it.

VMware posted an article with a misleading title saying that Fusion is even better with Snow Leopard. But wait, it’s only if you run the 32 bit kernel of Snow Leopard. VMware says it won’t be a problem for most users because their servers will use 32 bit mode anyway unless it’s a 2008 or 2009 model server. I’m pretty sure it’s the same with MacBooks, iMacs and Mac Minis. To me, that’s a sorry excuse. I’m glad it works with 32 bit Snow Leopard, but the main reason Snow Leopard exists is its 64 bit speedy goodness.

Might it be time to give Parallels a try?

–update

As I’ve played with Snow Leopard and dug around for more information, the OS boots using the 32 bit kernel by default on ALL Apple products unless it’s a 2008 or 2009 model server. The available 64 bit apps still run in 64 bit mode on top of this 32 bit kernel, which means Fusion will still run unless you specifically boot into 64 bit mode by holding down the 6 & 4 keys during bootup.

Rumor has it, however, that a Software Update somewhere down the road will change the default behavior to boot the 64 bit kernel. I’m not sure how true this is, or when it will happen if it is true.