VMware and upstart Parallels are both preparing to release upgrades to their popular software that enable Windows applications to run virtually on Mac hardware.
VMware Fusion 2.0 will be released in a month, according to Pete Kazanjy, product marketing manager at VMware. The new version supports virtual machine (VM) instances running on as many as 4 processors, and lets users create and VMs out of Mac OS X Leopard Server, which rival Parallels introduced in August.
[ Read the related story "Will Apple ever liberalize Mac OS X virtualization" and stay up to date on the latest virtualization developments with InfoWorld's Virtualization Report blog and newsletter. ]
Meanwhile, Parallels has released a private beta of Parallels Desktop 4.0, said Ray Chew, a senior product manager at the company. It will make an official announcement about the next version in the next couple months, he said.
A leaked version of Parallels Desktop 4.0 hit the Web earlier this month. The most recent version, Parallels Desktop 3.0, was released 15 months ago.
Demand for running Windows virtualization on Macs continues to grow. According to a Web-based survey released this month by an independent analyst, Laura DiDio, and sponsored by anti-virus vendor Sunbelt Software, 23 percent of 700 businesses said they were doing some Windows virtualization on their Mac hardware, whether as client PCs or servers.
"Several dozen" had virtualized Windows on more than a thousand Macs, DiDio said.
While Mac management tools are growing, any remaining slack "wasn't holding them back," said DiDio. Several respondents cited ADmitMac as an adequate third-party Active Directory tool.
It's unclear who is the market leader. Parallels has sold more than 1 million copies of its Desktop product since June 2006. VMware sold 250,000 copies of Fusion in the first 5 months of its release in August, Kazanjy said. He declined to release more up-to-date figures.
DiDio's results indicated VMware Fusion and Parallels were "neck and neck" in terms of popularity.
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