Unity: Vmware's answer to Coherence

VMware have posted a video on youtube of a feature of their next beta of Fusion called Unity. Its basically like Coherence, but has some neat features like drop shadows.

Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIApJMzGzDQ

 

Nice post I was just coming here to post about the same thing. The BIG difference for me is not so much the drop shadows (which look very good), but the fact that expose works correctly with Windows programs. This is a really cool feature. Does Parallels Desktop for Mac's Coherence 2.0 have Expose-enabled windows or drop shadows?

 

Support for expose is what makes Unity look really good (I think)... Hopefully Parallels 3.0 will support it as well.

 

Damn...

I just might have to exercise that 30 day return policy for Parallels....

That is just too cool.

No wonder Parallels is pushing pre-orders.

 

Competition is a good thing.

 

Wow... I was suitably impressed with Coherence when I first saw it but that thing looks just too good to be true. The exposé integration, the mix & match of Windows and Mac windows (in coherence, bringing a Windows window to the front brings *all* Windows windows to the front), the genie effect when minimizing windows in the dock, really impressive. Of course, we'll need to see how that works in pratice but it looks like VMware is closing in faster than I thought.

 

Damn again.

I was hoping 3.0 would have something cooler, but if the beta tester above is that impressed by Unity I guess not.

(Regarding vioccc's signature.)

 

If you're going to do it that is certainly the right way. Complete z-axis control, and flawless Expose` operation with all windowed Windows apps.

 

Coherence was initially a quick-and-dirty hack that removed the Windows Desktop area from the VM window. Looks like VMware guys figured out how to one-up this concept. It's sort of like how in the Xerox Alto's GUI interface didn't allow window overlapping, but when Apple engineers 'borrowed' the GUI concept from them they thought windows could overlap and Apple Lisa's interface allowed window overlapping.

If the 3D support is indeed better with Parallels 3.0 than VMware Fusion, then this means the whole table is turned around - if you need (better) 3D, you go Parallels, and if you need (better) 'Coherence' (Unity), you go Fusion. Hmm...

 

And if you want responsive tech support, go Fusion. If you want a stable company, with years of experience with VMs, and most likely much larger development and QA teams, go Fusion.

 

I'm seeing that that Parallels has increased the workforce responding to tech support and forum questions noticeably. That's a good thing... at least they're doing something about it. I currently don't have any problems that I need to mingle with tech support so I can't say how good, however.

Meanwhile, while VMware do have a big market and mindshare in the VM market, Parallels' parent company (SWsoft) isn't exactly some new, unstable company, either.

 

I assume that both companies will be at WWDC, only time will tell what features of their software they want to show off/announce

BTW, why did somebody move this out of the Parallels Desktop for mac forum?

 

I stand corrected on the company thing. That was ignorance on my part...

While its good they're increasing their tech support and such, my personal experience thus far is causing my 'consumer alarm' to ring loud and clear.

 

RujusMacBook,
that is really a nice post
Don't you find surprising that that nice PR video didn't show any windows of *single VM* overlapping ? You know, all these videos to my mind are a kinda FUD. The only way customers should judge is trying out the real product. I didn't see that real product yet, but it will be interesting to take a look at.
Competition is definitely a good thing.

 

Yeah, their separating each Windows window from the others is definitely a cool trick. And it does one up Parallels. It will be quite interesting to see how Parallels responds. The one thing I did notice was during the "genie effect" of minimizing windows, it sure did look like what was being minimized was the windows desktop wallpaper. So VmWare is using the same basics of "hiding" the Windows desktop that Parallels is.

Competition really is a good thing.

 

Absolutely. But personally, i don't see any problem here.
I love and respect VMware developers - will see if they can surprise us, or if we can surprise them.

 

Now the extra preorder discount has expired, can we expect 3.0 this week?

 

I couldn't tell from the crappy resolution that more than one vm was running. If that's the case then it's a bit disingenuous. Parallels has the same capability with multiple vm's - in fact it's not even a Parallels feature - that's just how Expose treats all applications.

 

What do you mean? At the beginning of the video, they clearly show Minesweeper and WMP launched in the same VM interleaved with a Finder window.

 

With the Finder - yes. But not between themselves.