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VMware launched VMware Player 2, which includes beefed-up support for modern hardware and is available free, and VMware Fusion for Mac--which isn't free, but does allow Windows applications to integrate with the Mac desktop.
VMware Player 2 allows users to run 32- and 64-bit applications and operating system environments distributed as a virtual appliance, using under either Windows or Linux as the host OS.

The Player include experimental support for two-way Virtual SMP, which allows multiple virtual machines to each use more than one CPU--useful for high-performance applications. Expanded operating system support, including Windows Vista, although the Player won't run the Aero UI. It also supports over 60 32- and 64-bit guest and host OSes, according to VMware.

They include NetWare, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, Solaris x86, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, and Ubuntu. New virtual appliance interface, which VMware calls a 'home page' that streamlines access to virtual appliances by enabling users to browse its site for virtual appliances and their descriptions. Simpler data sharing between virtual machines and the host using shared folders or by dragging and dropping files between the virtual and host machines.

VMware Player 2 is free of charge and available for download.VMware Fusion enables Mac users to run Mac, Windows, Linux, NetWare and Solaris-based applications simultaneously without rebooting, which puts it in head-on competition with the recently released Parallels Desktop for Mac 3.0. However, VMware Fusion won't be generally available for a couple of months.

Key features of VMware Fusion include Automatic Boot Camp integration, which means existing installations are detected to allow Mac OS X to run alongside Windows XP or Vista with no additional setup. Accelerated 3D graphics support, which enables users to run DirectX 8.1 applications and play select DirectX 8.1 games from within Windows XP virtual machines. It doesn't support the Vista Aero interface however. Hardware support includes Virtual SMP to use dual-core and dual-processor computers and 64-bit operating systems, as well as the maximum memory available on Mac Pro and Xserve computers. USB 2.0 support, for high-speed hardware applications. Snapshot/backup, so users can capture and save the current state of a running virtual machine. This enables them to roll back to a previous state if the virtual machine becomes unresponsive.
European marketing manager Richard Gartshagen said that VMware's Mac integration was better than that of Parallels because his company's technology is more mature, and VMware has more virtualization experience.