Parallels new beta and VMWare public beta

This month, both Parallels and VMware updated their virtualisation solutions for Mac OS X. Parallels has released Parallels Desktop build 3094 while VMWare has released the first public beta of VMware for Macintosh.

The latest version of Parallels brings USB support, the ability to burn CD/DVDs on Windows, better support of Windows' activation system with Boot Camp and improved "Coherence" feature.

Parallel's Coherence feature now allows you to display Windows applications like if they were Mac OS X applications, you can even hide them, minimize them, and launch them right from the dock.

VMWare Fusion Build 36932 offers to Mac users a Virtual PC environment with full USB support, compatibility with VMWare products which are widely used in the enterprise and the ability to choose how many cores are affected to the virtual machine.

The beta version of VMWare was only available to users who had registered to the VMWare Fusion beta program but is now available for download to everyone.

Parallels had announced the Mac version of its virtualisation solution early last year. Parallels Desktop has since become the most popular solution.

VMWare, which was first rumoured by MacosXrumors to be working on a Mac version of their PC virtualisation product, announced VMWare fusion for Mac OS X and started beta test program earlier this year.

While Parallels is focusing on the consumer market, VMWare seems to be targeting the enterprise market like it already did with its products for Linux and Windows.

Last summer, MacosXrumors also reported that Apple and VMWare could collaborate on letting Mac OS X run on a virtual machine.

Meanwhile, Apple's executives denied rumours that Apple was working on its own virtualisation solution, claiming that it would represent too much R&D costs.