Virtualisation software specialist VMware has posted a pre-release version of 'Fusion', the Mac version of its desktop virtualisation software. The public availability of the beta release was accompanied by VMware competitor Parallels' posting of a update to its own Mac virtualisation tool.

VMware announced Fusion in August this year. At the time, it said it would offer a public beta "later in the year".

Fusion runs on any Intel-based Mac to run other x86 operating systems - not only Windows but also Linux, Solaris and NetWare, for example - alongside Mac OS X. Like Parallels, but unlike Apple's own Boot Camp utility, Fusion runs guest operating systems from within the host, allowing users to run guest apps without the need to restart their hardware.

Fusion provides immediate support for the USB 2.0 devices, something that has only now come to Parallels Desktop, courtesy of the update Parallels announced last night. Fusion also provides access to the broader range of corporate-oriented virtualisation tools VMware produces and the environment of third-party tools that has grown up around them.

VMware said Fusion supports dragging and dropping folders between host and guest OS. It also said the app can be configured to use specific processors and processor cores in multi-CPU and/or multi-core machines.

VMware Fusion can be downloaded here. A trial version and the new version of Parallels Desktop can be downloaded here. ®