Good news for Mac owners who need to run Windows on their machines, as competition is heating up for virtualization on the Mac with the release of VMware Fusion. The software supports dual-core processors, both 32bit and 64bit operating systems ranging from DOS to Vista and everywhere in between, as well as a variety of USB 2.0 devices, according to the company.

"VMware Fusion combines a very clean and intuitive interface that Mac users expect with the world's most trusted desktop virtualization platform to allow users to run Mac applications seamlessly alongside PC applications on Intel-based Macs."
Windows-on-Mac virtualization market leader Parallels, offers similar functionality with its Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac product, which was launched in June. The new version of Fusion brings Unity with Exposé support, which lets you run Windows applications on your OS X desktop as if you're not running Windows at all, similar to Coherence in Parallels. In addition, VMware’s latest offering also provides power management capabilities, the ability to minimize to the dock, customizable toolbars, and an entirely Cocoa UI.

The final version of Fusion will be available for purchase at a number of online stores, through Apple's retail stores and other authorized retailers, starting August 6th for $79.99 – although a special preorder price of $39.99 will be available through August 5.