VMware Fusion Pro 26H1 released with support for more guest OSes

Yesterday, we reported that Broadcom has released VMware Workstation Pro version 26H1 for the masses, bringing 64-bit binaries and components for Windows hosts, and more. Many Windows/Linux customers may not be aware, but VMware Workstation Pro does not work on macOS, and Broadcom actually has a separate flavor for macOS, called VMware Fusion Pro. This dedicated macOS virtualization software also received version 26H1 recently.

Although some changes between VMware Workstation Pro and VMware Fusion Pro are shared, the change log for the latter is a bit brief. Similar to VMware Workstation Pro 26H1, the latest release of VMware Fusion Pro also brings recording and reporting timestamps, making it easier for customers to identify and differentiate virtual machines. Support for remote connections to ARM-based ESX hosts has been added as well, and just like its Windows counterpart, Fusion Pro now supports the following guests operating systems:

• Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
• Fedora 43
• Fedora 44
• SUSE Linux Enterprise 16
• openSUSE 16.0
• FreeBSD 15.0

However, unlike Workstation Pro, Fusion Pro includes a fix for a high severity security bug. This is tagged as VMSA-2026-0003 and is a privilege escalation issue impacting Fusion Pro version 25H2. The only way to fix it is to update to version 26H1.

Broadcom describes VMware Fusion Pro as the "easiest, fastest, and most reliable way to run Windows and other x86/ARM based operating systems on a Mac without rebooting." However, it's rather annoying that the company expects customers to log in to its Broadcom support portal to grab the latest available version. Speaking of which, customers with both Intel- and Apple Silicon-based Macs can navigate here to download VMware Fusion Pro version 26H1. If you have an old Mac and you're unsure if it's capable of running VMware Fusion Pro in a decent state, make sure to check out the system requirements here.