I have run Parallels and thought it was great.
As to your new issue I do have my solution. But it's not what you think. Here it is.
I have Linux running on a networked PC. On Windows I have my X-Server running and can tell my linux box to send the app I want to my Windows X-server and viola I'm doing and getting just about what a VMware fusion might do.
Sorry but some will call that cheating.
Bob
VMWare Fusion is a software package created of course by VMWare. It is strictly developed and executed for the Macintosh Platform. What it does is allow users to run a virtual machine (hypervisor) of Windows on top of the Mac OS. For those of you are saying, that isn't special, here's the really cool part. You can take conponents of the Windows Virtual Enviroment and interact with them as if they were right there on the Mac platform, without having the entire Windows OS in it's own virtual window. There is another software package out there called Parallels with Coherence, that does the same thing.
Now I am not a Mac user, but I find this software really awesome. And I do use hypervisors when I need to access Linux. Is anyone aware of a software package like Fusion which runs on Windows? I think there should be, for those of us who do use Linux in a virtual machine this would be cool. And for those who run different versions of the Windows, or just have another computer in a hypervisor.

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