{"slug": "vmware-fusion", "name": "VMware Fusion", "category": "infra", "category_name": "Infrastructure and DevOps", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 2.313, "rising": 0.67, "first": "2026-01-22", "latest": "2026-08-25", "why": "I have tested Fusion, Parallels and UTM and Fusion seemed to be the most stable for me.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I have tested Fusion, Parallels and UTM and Fusion seemed to be the most stable for me.", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["VMware Fusion"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 790955513, "item_id": 49434719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49434719", "by": "jlokier", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "some proprietary (VMware Fusion, Parallels)", "excerpt": "You can't run Linux directly on these. Asahi Linux supports up to M2 only. Linux runs very well in a VM on macOS. There are many good options for this, some free and open source (QEMU, UTM, Lima, Colima), some proprietary (VMware Fusion, Parallels). But Linux in a VM doesn't get access to the real GPU, so model performance is limited. Those running on the CPU perform well, and those needing the GPU don't. However, ma", "context": "", "use_case": "running Linux VMs on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra"}, {"id": 747641137, "item_id": 46727571, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46727571", "by": "andrewbastin", "date": "2026-01-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have tested Fusion, Parallels and UTM and Fusion seemed to be the most stable for me.", "excerpt": "I run NixOS within VMWare Fusion (Mitchell Hashimoto has posted something similar https://github.com/mitchellh/nixos-config) in my M4 Max MBP. It runs pretty well but may hit the battery life sometimes. There are some weird stuff that happens with their GPU accelaration and random Fusion crashes sometimes. I patched Hyprland locally in my config due to a weird (but documented) issue with their GPU accelaration implem", "context": "M4 Max MacBook Pro user", "use_case": "Linux VM on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's the best virtual Linux desktop experience on macOS for devs?"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "PlunderBunny", "context": "pinned to version 13.6.4", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47955605", "date": "2026-04-29"}, {"by": "andrewbastin", "context": "M4 Max MacBook Pro user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46727571", "date": "2026-01-22"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["running linux vms on macos", "running windows and linux vms on mac", "running nixos vm on mac", "linux vm on macos"], "compared": [{"slug": "utm", "name": "UTM", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "parallels", "name": "Parallels", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "nixos", "name": "NixOS", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46726016", "title": "Ask HN: What's the best virtual Linux desktop experience on macOS for devs?", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49433292", "title": "Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47951037", "title": "Virtualisation on Apple Silicon Macs is different", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 790955513, "item_id": 49434719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49434719", "by": "jlokier", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "some proprietary (VMware Fusion, Parallels)", "excerpt": "You can't run Linux directly on these. Asahi Linux supports up to M2 only. Linux runs very well in a VM on macOS. There are many good options for this, some free and open source (QEMU, UTM, Lima, Colima), some proprietary (VMware Fusion, Parallels). But Linux in a VM doesn't get access to the real GPU, so model performance is limited. Those running on the CPU perform well, and those needing the GPU don't. However, ma", "context": "", "use_case": "running Linux VMs on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra"}, {"id": 767289680, "item_id": 47955605, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47955605", "by": "PlunderBunny", "date": "2026-04-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Fusion feels very much like it's on life support.", "excerpt": "I use VMWare Fusion, (version 13.6.4 because 25H2 has a bad scrolling bug that makes it unusable for me) and it does implement bi-directional copy/paste, and you can also drag files in and out of the VM (there's a few tricks required to make it work sometimes) but I've only tested this for Windows 10 and Linux as a guest, not macOS as a guest. Re: Downloading, I have the same issue. What I do is note the note the SHA", "context": "pinned to version 13.6.4", "use_case": "running Windows and Linux VMs on Mac", "switched_from": "", "story": "Virtualisation on Apple Silicon Macs is different"}, {"id": 747833745, "item_id": 46739609, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46739609", "by": "darkteflon", "date": "2026-01-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "GPU acceleration enabled out of the box.", "excerpt": "Thanks for this suggestion! Good enough for Mitchell is good enough for me. I tried this yesterday and it\u2019s working great - GPU acceleration enabled out of the box. I\u2019ve got some reservations about NixOS from previous attempts to use it on bare metal - and from reading others\u2019 experiences with the project and concerns about its governance on hn - but I can definitely see that running it in a VM is a much lower-stakes", "context": "", "use_case": "running NixOS VM on Mac", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's the best virtual Linux desktop experience on macOS for devs?"}, {"id": 747641137, "item_id": 46727571, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46727571", "by": "andrewbastin", "date": "2026-01-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have tested Fusion, Parallels and UTM and Fusion seemed to be the most stable for me.", "excerpt": "I run NixOS within VMWare Fusion (Mitchell Hashimoto has posted something similar https://github.com/mitchellh/nixos-config) in my M4 Max MBP. It runs pretty well but may hit the battery life sometimes. There are some weird stuff that happens with their GPU accelaration and random Fusion crashes sometimes. I patched Hyprland locally in my config due to a weird (but documented) issue with their GPU accelaration implem", "context": "M4 Max MacBook Pro user", "use_case": "Linux VM on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's the best virtual Linux desktop experience on macOS for devs?"}]}