VMware vs. Parallels

VMware vs. Parallels

What are the latest opinions on this?

 

i am using vmware at the moment, but i might switch.

parallels has more complete video card support. it might be fun to play around with.

both are really good for normal virtualized tasks.

 

Why might you switch?

 

Using Parallels. My mac kept crashing / freezing when I was using the VMware.

 

I plan to get the demo version of Parallels when my MBP comes in. I tried VMWare on Windows XP and Vista and it works fine for the most part. The only problem with VMware is that on Vista it takes a lot longer to load a virtual machine. It might be due to configuration problems that i set up for it. Also, vista can't read cd's and dvd's for some reason after i installed vmware.

anyway, thats my 2 cents

 

This is from my sticky on the top of this forum:

• Price: The price of Parallels Desktop is $79 US, and VMware currently is selling Fusion for a pre-order price of $39 US. Upon final release of VMware Fusion in August 2007, the retail price will be $79 US.
  
  
• 64-bit OS: Parallels Desktop currently does not support 64-bit OSes, just 32-bit. VMware Fusion does support 64-bit OSes.
  
  
• Gaming: Parallels Desktop has full 3D graphics support, meaning you can play any game through Parallels fine. VMware Fusion is still testing graphics support, and not all games are guaranteed to be playable under VMware Fusion. See the list of games currently officially supported by VMware at the Things To Note section of this sticky.
  
  
• Multicore Management: VMware Fusion allows you to assign multiple cores with your virtual machines using two-way Virtual SMP. Parallels does not have this feature yet.

There are more differences between the two but I haven't had time to add more yet. Here's just some of the factors you should look at.

Also, VMware Fusion is in Beta form right now, so as one of the other posters said it crashed on him. The final version is expected in August.

 

I'll try 'em both then. From what you say here, it looks like VMWare Fusion is a potential better choice, with the support for 64-bit OS's and that multi-core management feature. Seeing as I have yet to get my MBP, I can't make a firm decision on which one I want yet without testing.

 

i meant that i might switch because of the graphics support.

read closely.

i might need to run some graphics apps in college, im not exactly sure at the moment.

 

Yes, many of the users do say they prefer VMware Fusion over Parallels (although Parallels gets more attention). VMware has a lot of experience in virtualization and many of the exclusive features in VMware are because they've learned so much with their experience.

But the main drawback in VMware Fusion right now is limited graphics support for gaming. But I wouldn't recommend gaming in a virtual machine anyways; game via Boot Camp.

 

I must admit that I did not read up anything on VMWare Fusion yet. I just heard about it yesterday! A friend at work has Parallels and he likes it a lot. Does VMWare Fusion support the ability to launch from a Boot Camp partition like Parallels can?

 

yeah but how does half life 2 run in parallels?

i mean, if i can squeeze out 100 fps in boot camp, can i get 50 in parallels?

 

Yes, you can run VMware using the Windows partition you created from Boot Camp.

 

If for a non-gamer (like me) would VMWare be a better choice than Parallels?

 

Based on the current exclusive features available in VMware Fusion and the lower pre-order price, I'd say, yes, go with VMware Fusion. VMware has more experience with virtualization.

Pre-order now for $39 (when it finally arrives it will cost $79, same as Parallels), and the final version is expected to arrive in August.

 

I haven't ordered my MBP yet. Any idea how long the $39 price will be good for?

 

The pre-order price is available from now until close to the final release of VMware Fusion in August (no set date yet, but since there's been no announcement I'd guess it'd be late August).

 

Great, thanks.

Hopefully I'll be able to order soon.

 

Happy to help out, SoundsGood .

 

It's coming out on Monday according to this article:
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/08/02/fusion_vmware_out/

My question is, if VMware isn't as good with graphics as Parallels, does that mean programs like Photoshop won't work well with it?

I'm a total newbie when it comes to all this ... have only had a Macbook Pro for 3 days after 25 years of using PCs. Talk about a learning curve!

 

Forgot to add that I've had terrible problems with Parallels, getting the blue screen of death when I try to install Windows XP/SP2. I guess this is common (judging from the posts at the Parallels forum) and there seems to be no solution. Am totally fed up with Parallels.

 

No, I'm pretty sure it refers to 3-D graphics (like hard core games). Photoshop is not 3-D.

You and me both!

 

Photoshop isn't a graphics intensive task. Photoshop utilizes the CPU. So VMware Fusion and Parallels will both run Photoshop fine. Games will not work as well on VMware Fusion, and there's a list of games currently supported on the sticky.

Well, I'm going out of town now. I might get WiFi at the hotel tonight, I'll see. See ya guys!

 

Have fun!

 

Actually this isn't true at the moment.
Parallels, unless something changed recently, still only lets you dedicate one core to Windows, whereas VMWare Fusion lets you dedicate both...so you'd probably see some increase in performance with Fusion.

 

I've tried both on my new MBP.

Parallels worked well......until it totally screwed up and kept freezing and giving me "fatal error in virtual monitor". Support with macfuse was pretty bad as well even though they said the update was compatible with macfuse 0.4. Lost the ability to write to ntfs.

Vmware has worked fine. Once it failed to start vmware tools which is necessary for certain features. I'm not sure what exclusive features people are talking about. For the most part, both seemed exactly the same but I did like parallels better.

VMware doesn't utilize macfuse so you can't edit or read files from MAC OSX while you are virtualizing. You can send to and read files from OSX through the virtualized Windows OS using shared folders. An example is, if you wanted to read music from the bootcamp partition from itunes in mac you can't. But you can do the reverse, read mp3s from the mac partition in windows itunes. You can already do that with macdrive though. Parallels allowed you (through macfuse) to read and write from mac osx.

I would say parallels is better and more powerful but its got way to many problems. Use VMware til Parallels get their stuff together...if ever.