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Leopard OS X and VMware Fusion
By greg | October 30, 2007
Screenshots, tips, and my experience with Leopard OS X and VMware Fusion
Preface:
This is not really an official “tip.†I just wanted to share Leopard with those of you who are interested. I may throw some tidbits in there that could be considered “tips,†but if you’re here looking for a Tiger tip, you’ll have to check back later.
And the world of Apple just keeps getting better. As most of you know and all of you should know, Apple released Leopard OS X (10.5) October 26th for the Mac. This is the first OS update I have gone through since becoming a proud member of the Mac family, and I am not disappointed by any means.
I was hesitant to upgrade at first because of fears of bugs not being worked out, incompatibility with applications, and so on and so forth. I can explain my skepticism in one word: Vista. We all know how that “upgrade†played out. Well anyways… after reading a few forums and checking my bank account, I decided to throw myself at the mercy of Leopard. For those of you who haven’t read my latest blog post, Leopard (as well as VMware Fusion) was my reward for surviving (I say nothing about passing…) a Western Civilization exam. I was over-rewarded. Thanks to my school’s special vendor’s license, I got it for under $80 (regularly $110+). My opinion is somewhat biased right now due to my excitement exploring all that Leopard has to offer, if you can’t tell. At first though, this was not the case. Let me explain.
The process of updating an OS can be quite tedious if you’re very cautious and arguably anal like I am. This is because you have to go through the process of backing up all your important files at the bare minimum just in case the dreaded occurs. Shall we say “Bricked MacBookâ€Â? Once I had backed up my calendar, address book, bookmarks, keychains, email, and taken pictures (I love screenshots) of all my applications in case I needed to go out and get them again (I had my music already backed up on my iPod and pictures on another computer) I was ready to go. Now I had to deal with the decision of whether or not to wipe my computer clean and do a clean install,“archive and installâ€Â, or simply upgrade. I chose the latter of the three, though I’d recommend “archive and install†at the very least for most users. I chose what I chose because I had to wipe my computer clean within the past 2 months because of the stupid programmers of Monolingual (a little harsh, but that program should be used with care), and I also didn’t want to wait that long to start delving in.
So I popped in the disc, and I was on my way. The upgrade took… I think about an hour, though I really can’t be sure. I was playing Smash Bro’s next door while it installed. Once it was completed, I rebooted with eager expectation. This next part was the worst part of the whole thing because I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on. My Pro booted, and the OS dragged, lagged, and sputtered like crazy. I think this is due to spotlight “indexing†all the files as well as other “under the hood†processes being run. I rebooted once, and it was still sluggish. I cringed at the thought of it not working, and I went to bed frustrated but hopeful that all it needed was some time to “marinade.†In the morning, it worked a lot smoother, though after a bit of use, it got quite sluggish again. One more hard reboot (power off opposed to restart), and I was off to the races with all smiles.
Here’s a pic (click for full size) that kind of shows off two of Leopard’s GUI additions (New view in Finder and stacks): I find these very aesthetically pleasing 
. Right off the bat, these two features are right at hand. The other advertised feature that relates to the GUI is “Spaces.†
This is not enabled on default. You have go into System Prefs (which has a sweet new icon), Expose and Spaces, and enable Spaces. Simple enough, eh? This allows you to have, in turn, double, triple, quadruple, etc. desktop space. It allows you to theoretically group windows in different “spaces.†Place your iTunes and Mail on one “space,†hit the designated hot-keys and *swoosh* you have a new clean desktop to work with. This proves to be really helpful with applications such as VMware Fusion, which I will discuss more in depth later. Here’s a quick shot of what the “Spaces†feature looks like when minimized (click for larger image).
Here I have 4 “Spaces†though it may look like more (I have dual monitors so I have 2 desktops for one “Space†if that makes any sense). Notice XP Pro running in Space #2… that’s the power of VMware Fusion. Another kind of kool change is the new effects that are offered in iChat and Photo Booth. There are backdrops and more that are now included. They don’t work like a charm, but they’re fun to play with. The new video chat features in iChat are pretty sweet (at least in theory. I haven’t used them myself). You can now share picture, videos, and more in video-conferencing on top of being able to use effects during iChat video conferencing. You even have the option of allowing somebody else in the conference to take over your desktop. If it actually runs smoothly with a decent connection, that is an awesome feature. I know in my own case, my cousin and I have wanted to do this and didn’t want to have to deal with VNC.
Leopard still has much much more to offer (marketed as 300+ changes if I recall correctly), but those will just have to wait ’til another time ( or you can go research yourself ).
Now I just want to show you a glimpse of VMWare Fusion. This program cost me $50, and it allows you to run Windows XP or Vista (and actually linux if you wanted to) on your Mac. I’m always one who goes for free applications, but I was so impressed with VMWare’s trial, I had to have it. Unlike Boot Camp, which is included in Leopard, no reboot is needed to run Windows with VMWare. It’s similar to Parallels, though from my research, VMWare is more stable, and I simply liked it better. If you have dual monitors, you can set Windows to full screen on one monitor and have Leopard on the other. You could even set Windows to full screen on one of your “Spaces†if you wanted to (as seen in the picture above). This does eat resources, but not as much as you might think. It runs almost seamlessly on my MacBook Pro (Intel Core 2 duo, 2 gb or RAM).
If these screenshots don’t impress you, I don’t know what will. You can take active windows from XP for example and move them directly onto your Mac Desktop. You can even place Windows programs in your dock if you want to! As you can see in this screenshot, I have My Computer and Windows Media Player on the Mac OS desktop. You can minimize the windows right to the dock as well! GAH!!! IT’S SO AMAZING!!!
VMWare can use your Boot Camp partition to run Windows so rest easy if you already had your drive partitioned, which is awesome to say the least. You can still boot into Windows if you choose to devote all your resources to it (using Boot Camp), or you can simply run VMWare in OS X. You don’t need to sacrifice one or the other. They exist in perfect harmony. The only problem I ran into was having to reactivate XP. For some reason, when VMWare is used to run XP, reactivation is required due to “hardware changes.†My license didn’t work, and i had to call Microsoft in order to activate. It really wasn’t that much of an inconvenience. I just had to talk to a machine for about 5 minutes. I don’t think this is a common issue, as I found no answers through Google.
Well, that about covers my experiences up to this point. Hopefully this provided you with at least some helpful info. If you have any questions, corrections or concerns, feel free to comment below (You don’t need to login or anything. It’s really simple) or email me at gloesch.web@gmail.com.
Related posts:
- Snow Leopard – Installation (Part 1a/2-Two OS Installations in Three Days)
- Make your Computer YOUR Computer
- Spring Cleaning… Tech Style
- Leopard Update – 10.5.2
- Snow Leopard – First Impressions and SL’s (not) New Looks (Part 1b/2-Two OS Installations in Three Days)
- Macbook Pro Hard-drive Upgrade – Part 2
- The QuickSilver Application – A Keyboard Enthusiast’s Dream
- Exposé Just Got a Little Cooler & New Thumbnail Previews (Snow Leopard)
Topics: Apple, Mac | 4 Comments »
July 11th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
The only possible correction I can see is changing “I decided to through” to “I decided to throw”.
I just moved from the PC world to a Mac OS X Leopard / VMWare Fusion with XP and am suffering a few growing pains but feel satisfied in purchasing my iMac.
July 11th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Ben,
Thanks for the proof-reading help. Got ‘er all fixed up now.
Yeah, if you’re anything like me, you’ll be in love with the Mac in no time. I was borderline obsessed with learning as much as I could(keyboard shortcuts, apps, etc.) as soon as I got it. The growing pains should disappear quickly.
I’d be glad to answer any questions you might have. Feel free to email me
-Greg
September 5th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Any tips on how to use mac keyboard while running Windows XP?
For instance, control + click will get a new folder and Command + F3 will push Windows aside. Is there a virtual PC keyboard? How to a take screenshots? Command + shift + 3 won’t work. Help, Nate
September 6th, 2008 at 1:51 am
Are you referring to Windows XP using VMware Fusion or Parallels? Or in Boot Camp?
If you’re referring to VMware, the keyboard layout (at least mine is) should be pretty straight forward.
Command ⌘ = Windows key
Option ⌥ = Alt
Control = Ctrl
In regard to the screenshots, Command + Shift + 3 works fine for me in VMware. If it’s in Boot Camp, the only default screenshot option available is Print Screen (which might be something like… F14). There might be some free apps out there, I don’t know.
Does this help at all?