VMWare, the current king of the not quite new but recently exploding virtualization market, has unveiled some new treats for Mac users. VMWare Fusion 2.0 Beta 1 has been released, bringing with it a host of new features that make virtualization on a Mac all that much more enjoyable. First and foremost, the new release adds multi-display support for anyone using multiple monitors. In a blatant but expected attempt to siphon away people from other suites, Fusion 2 also adds easier conversion tools to retrieve a virtual machine from Parallels Desktop or Virtual PC, not to mention older VMWare VMs.

Fusion 2.0 also includes the ability to take a “Boot Camp’ed” Mac and convert the Windows portion into a full virtual machine, removing the need to dual boot. They also have improved the experimental DirectX and Direct3D support, with “experimental” support for DX9.0 and SM2. While you cannot ever expect to play 3D games at full speed inside a virtual machine, the support alone is impressive. Following a registration, Fusion 2.0 is a free download.