Turns out that VMware Fusion is smart enough to go through the entire Linux setup process without bothering you at all, so this is where you specify your basic account and password. Smart, eh? To proceed, just click “Continue” on the lower right. Notice that the program has figured out what OS we’re installing and identified it’s a 64-bit version of Ubuntu Linux. Once it’s read the file image, VMware Fusion for Mac will automatically move to the next step: Simply drag the ISO file icon onto the drop target, as shown: The new virtual machine window will pop up, ready to go. Click on it and choose “New…” to create a new VM: On the top left of the main screen there’ll be a “+” button. While it’s downloading, launch VMware Fusion. It’ll take a while for the download even on a fast connection. Easiest is to go to /download/desktop or just click on the box below (it’ll grab the latest copy if things have updated in the interim between me writing this and you downloading the OS): Grab an evaluation copy or go ahead and pay for a license at. To start, you’ll need VMware Fusion, of course. One huge benefit: You can run Ubuntu and whatever other VM you prefer simultaneous to also running MacOS X and all of your favorite Mac apps too. If you’ve just got some regular user software to test out, or just want to learn more about Linux with the easy Ubuntu world, then a VM is going to be a smarter alternative. If you’re testing software that accesses device drivers or hardware, for example, a dual boot is probably going to be better. The only comment I’ll make about dual boot versus virtual machine is that a dual boot install will be a bit cleaner and faster, if that makes a difference. Even better, you can grab a free ISO disk image of Ubuntu directly from their Web site and once you’ve grabbed the 1.5GB file, it’s rather astonishingly easy to go from download to running Ubuntu installation! Great choices all around, Ubuntu is my favorite Linux distro and VMware Fusion has been a cornerstone of my Mac experience for many years and does a great job installing and running just about every flavor of Linux (and Windows too).

Virtual machine ubuntu for mac