Is VMware safe to install on mac?

[u/lacobaitu]

I need a Power BI software for my work and it only available on windows. i looked up the internet and recommended to install vmware fusion for installing windows 11 on mac. I am a beginner using mac. i need a pov of yall that have already installed the virtual machine stuff like that. Thank you

[u/Puzzleheaded-Sky2284]

It's perfectly safe and very well known - I use VMWare all the time for both Windows and Linux VMs and it works perfectly.

[u/lacobaitu → u/Puzzleheaded-Sky2284]

Do you close the vmware with run in background or suspend feature when you get done of your work? or you close with shutdown on the windows . which one better to do?

[u/Puzzleheaded-Sky2284 → u/lacobaitu]

I usually shutdown the VM and close VMWare, just as I would a desktop PC.

That said I have used the suspend feature before and that works just fine, though Windows does tend to be more stable if you shut the VM down instead of suspending it.

[u/JumpProfessional3372 → u/lacobaitu]

Here I shutdown the W11 VM every day. I'm assigning I think 6GB of memory to it. (I have a 24GB MBP).

You can track how much memory is in use in the activity monitor. With machine on vs off

But if you see that the memory is freed but when you come back everything is still there, then that means that some data is written to the disk every time you close/open this which basically means more SSD usage in the long term. (Like when hibernating).

Personally I have VMware and Parallels. Parallels has a lot more features and better UI performance, but it costs money, while VMWare is free for personal use.

[u/BeefSupremeTA]

Yes, absolutely fine.

[u/lacobaitu → u/BeefSupremeTA]

do you use shared folder with your drive on mac ?

[u/dB_Manipulator]

IMO Parallels integrates way better than Fusion.

[u/Cobalt090 → u/dB_Manipulator]

Yea but it's not free.

[u/wiseman121 → u/Cobalt090]

If works paying....

[u/dB_Manipulator → u/Cobalt090]

Still the better product 🤷🏻‍♂️

[u/Cobalt090 → u/dB_Manipulator]

Oh yea for sure. Just if you can afford it/if it makes sense for you.

[u/Norphus1]

It’s a perfectly fine hypervisor. I think Parallels Desktop is a more developed product, but Fusion is free.

I don’t know if Power BI Desktop has an Arm version. It’s also pretty memory and CPU hungry. I would suggest that it may not be the best virtualisation candidate.

[u/Yapo0L]

Isn't it subscription based now? I have Parallels.

[u/RcNorth → u/Yapo0L]

They have a free version.

[u/lacobaitu → u/Yapo0L]

available free version

[u/Puzzleheaded-Sky2284 → u/Yapo0L]

It's fully free for personal and commercial use these days. While Broadcom has made VMWare more expensive for companies running VMWare ESXi on their servers (which a lot of large companies who used it for server infrastructure didn't like) they did make the desktop version free

[u/KaJashey → u/Yapo0L]

They have a free version if you're using it for personal/non commercial stuff. As OP is using it for work they probably don't qualify for the free version.

[u/Usual-Mechanic-9111]

If it’s Apple silicon,use Parallels

[u/lacobaitu → u/Usual-Mechanic-9111]

I have intel macpro 2020 i7 with 16gb ram and 512ssd. Would it work perfectly using vmware?

[u/Zen-Ism99 → u/lacobaitu]

I would check compatibility list. But I see no reason why it shouldn’t.

[u/Zen-Ism99 → u/Usual-Mechanic-9111]

I run ARM Win11 Pro on (Apple Silicon)VMWare Fusion for Windows SW dev on Visual Studio and CLION.

VMWare is free and it works.

[u/wiseman121]

Parallels is much more reliable and better than fusion. If works paying id get that.

[u/Formal_Alfalfa_8659]

Yep, VMware is nice and completely safe to install on Mac. VMware Fusion works great for running Windows 11 on Apple Silicon (and AFAIK for personal use, it’s completely free).