I feel like I have been living under a rock until now ever since I bought my MacBook Pro and vmware Fusion and have been running my Windows developer applications in a virtual environment. Now granted, my old Dell XPS gaming laptop was pretty old and nothing compares to the Core 2 Duo Processor that my MacBook Pro and other laptops are running now.
However, vmware Fusion is pretty freaking cool. One of the options it has is to run your Windows Applications in the virtual desktop in Unity Mode. In Unity, the virtual desktop goes away and your windows application run on the desktop appearing like native Mac applications. Hence I will have Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2005 Management Studio and other Windows Application appearing right next to my Mac Applications as if they were running natively on Leopard.
As I type this blog post in Windows Live Writer, the untrained eye would probably think it is a Mac Application since it is sitting right next to other Mac Application. However, it is being run in a virtual environment, and yet the look, feel, and performance wouldn't make you think so. I also have both Expression Web and Design running virtually and they run just like all my other Mac Applications. In fact, I actually have two virtual environments running simultaneously. The development tools are being run from the development virtual environment and the blogging is being done from the test envirornment, but you can't tell the difference. They all flow together as if running on the same Mac OS and there isn't a virtual desktop in sight.
I am still getting used to the environment, the keyboard differences, layout, etc., but all I can say is that it is fun. It is cool to get this new perspective. It is neat to have choices between running applications in Windows and Leopard on the same PC. It is amazing to see how well vmware Fusion brings it all together. For the first time, I feel that virtualization is doable and, in fact, I am depending on it for my day-to-day development.
So far... so good! I hope it stays that way :)