VMware Fusion for M1 Macs Now Available as Private Tech Preview

VMware Fusion is now available as a private tech preview for M1 Macs, with users able to request access through an online form. A public tech preview will follow in around two weeks, according to a tweet from VMware Fusion manager Michael Roy.

VMWare Apple Silicon Feature
VMware Fusion for M1 Macs will be quite limited in scope, with a focus on virtualizing Arm-based Linux distributions. VMware Fusion will not officially support Windows 10 on M1 Macs at launch, as Microsoft has yet to offer licensing for the Arm version of Windows 10. In a tweet, Roy said Windows 10 should still run when selecting the "other" operating system type, but VMware will not be shipping drivers or VMware Tools.


VMware Fusion will also not be able to virtualize Intel-based Windows or Linux distributions, while support for virtualizing macOS is not ready yet. In a blog post last April, Roy said "there isn't exactly much business value relative to the engineering effort that is required" to support Intel-based operating systems on M1 Macs, adding that VMware is "laser focused on making Arm Linux VMs on Apple silicon a delight to use."

Microsoft does not yet offer a retail version of Arm-based Windows, but a preview version is available to Windows Insider program members. Earlier this year, VMware competitor Parallels boasted about the ability to run the Arm-based Windows preview on an M1 Mac with Parallels Desktop 16.5, but fine print notes that customers are responsible for making sure they are compliant with an operating system's licensing agreement.

No timeframe has been provided for the public release of VMware Fusion for M1 Macs, and pricing and upgrade options remain to be seen.

Tag: VMware

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Top Rated Comments

HiVolt Avatar
50 months ago
So in a nutshell, it's useless.
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HiVolt Avatar
50 months ago

It has value for devs and specialty markets, but for your typical consumer, pretty much.
Yeah, but for the past 15 years the Intel compatibility with either native or virtualized Windows (or other OS) was a big incentive for people that needed to run Windows (or other) software for work, and wanted the Mac experience for their day to day usage.

For many that meant having to only carry one laptop, and the extra cost of the Mac platform was justified. That is no longer the case going forward.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Manzanito Avatar
50 months ago
The windows insider preview for arm runs perfectly on m1 macs via parallels.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
4743913 Avatar
50 months ago

No WinXP, no deal. OK, no Win7, no deal. I just like starting XP and Snow Leopard and reminiscing about how fast and understandable and uncluttered everything used to be. Plus I need them sometimes for old software at work. :)
you must be young... a lot of us have the Commodore 64 for this. :D
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
visualseed Avatar
50 months ago
The good news is you will be able to locally run near perfect copies of hosted virtual arm servers. That's actually a good thing and it means I don't need to keep using a raspberry pi as a dev box.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ruka.snow Avatar
50 months ago

So in a nutshell, it's useless.
Nope, it is very useful. Developers often need to virtualise Linux as that is where our code is going and it can be via Docker, VM's or a VM then running Docker. Windows doesn't do anything you couldn't replace by just buying a Xbox.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)