Michael Lauden

Difficulty Level: Easy - Medium

Time Required: 45-60 minutes

Installing a completely new operating system on your Mac sound a little daunting. VMware Fusion takes out a lot of the hassle, and gives you the freedom to experiment with many operating systems. Many people use VMware Fusion or Parallels to virtualize another operating system.

This guide will show you how to create a virtual machine, using a cool Linux distribution,

Ubuntu 9.10: Karmic Koala

So lets get started

1. Download this free distribution of Linux Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala here.

2. Assuming you already own VMware go ahead and open it up, if not go ahead and download the demo here.

3. On the MenuBar click “File” then select “New…” or press Command+N

4. Since we downloaded Karmic Koala as a disk image (.ISO), we are going to select “Continue without disk”

5. You will receive another page with a few options, you’re going to want to select “Use Operating System Installation Disk Image File” and navigate to the 9.10 .ISO file.

6. Once you choose the right file, VMware should auto-detect the Operating System. If not, go ahead and set it to Linux, Ubuntu:

7. The last page should come up next, it just reviews a few different options you set for the Virtual Machine. Don’t set the RAM usage too high or memory swaps will occur, and even if you’re running a multi-core machine, set it to 1 virtual processor:

8. Once VMware Fusion creates the Operating System, you’re going to see it pop up in a list. Unless you have installed other Virtual Machines, you shouldn’t have any others on this window. I have installed gOS and Windows XP Pro 64.

9. Go ahead and select the startup arrow button and Ubuntu will pop up in another window. Your install will start now, so unless you really like reading boring information about ‘How Awesome Ubuntu is’ then go ahead and step away from the computer for a bit.

10. After a while you will have completed installing Linux Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala. Congratulations. Your Virtual Machine will reboot after the install. You will see some command line flowing, followed by a log in screen:

Here it is. Your very first virtual machine running inside VMware Fusion. You can now mess around, and try out some other cool Linux Distributions. Windows can be installed by following pretty much the same directions as well.

Congratulations! Happy Virtualizing!