Parallels 8 or VMWare 5

[ratsg]

I can't comment on speed issues between the different offerings, as I have never actually benchmarked them. Have you done actual benchmarking, or seat-of-the-pants, or something else?

I have never encountered any stability issues with VirtualBox. It has always been pretty much rock solid for me.

I do know that 4-5 years ago, the network bridging capability was not up to snuff, and at that time, I was leaning towards Parallels at that time. The last couple of years, bridging under VirtualBox has been pretty easy to set up.

Originally Posted by EmmEff

VirtualBox is an excellent product, especially since it's free. The downfall is performance and stability. I've been a VMware Fusion user since day one and it is noticeably faster.

Never been a Parallels fan.

[EmmEff]

I have not benchmarked it, but it is faster. Boot time and file I/O are noticeably better.

For a while I was experiencing hard lockups that I don't get on Fusion. I typically create, start, stop, and delete VMs dozens of times daily and found myself rebooting my machine multiple times daily. This problem might've been fixed since.

I need reliability and performance for my work and have much time and code invested in automation. I need it to work. Fusion does that for me.

[KiwiAdventure]

I'm running Parallels 8 and had a problem late last year with Parallels. I went on their forum site and within 4 hours all my problems were repaired. They asked me to upload my Parallels to them and once they had a look they solved my issues.

Their service was excellent and I live in New Zealand.

[dyn]

Originally Posted by CylonGlitch

I've used Fusion 2 and 3 for years; never did they open the previous VM (or display them). I didn't use 4, skipped it and went to 5 that now always opens the previous VM (but doesn't start it running).

I just don't recall it doing it differently. It is very useful because all I have to do is open Fusion and resume the vm's. A lot less work and hassle than going back to Finder to open up each vm. The only thing you'd want the Finder for is opening an x amount of specific vm's at the same time but it isn't a very good idea to do so due to the load spike you'll get. There will be an awful lot of iops due to starting/resuming vm's which can make it look like the machine is hanging. Not a very wise thing to do, even with an ssd. That's why I'm opening/resuming them about 1 or 2 at a time. I do the same on the ESXi server with the autostart option. It evens out the load and makes/keeps the machine more responsive.

We move around VM's so much that going through their built in finder is annoying since I end up having dozens of machines cluttering up their manager because they often don't exist anymore. Removing them through their finder is easy to accidentally delete it. Plus it's not a two step process; opening the library manager, then finding and launching the VM. Instead just double click the VM and away you go.

That's nonsense. The vm library does not behave differently than Finder does so deleting stuff in Finder is as easy as in the vm library. I'd say that in Finder it might be even easier since Fusion asks you if you want to just delete the entry or the entire vm on disk as well. Finder simply deletes it all. In both cases it will go to the bin first.

If you manage your vm's from the library than that's all that is required. The mistake you seem to be making is the same one most people make with iPhoto en iTunes as well: they manage it from Finder and the application itself. If you do that than you'll have a lot of trouble in OS X. In OS X it is much easier and wiser to handle it via the application. In this case that means that you add/delete vm's via the vm library (and it works fine).

Finding vm's is no different than in Finder itself. You can create folders with vm's and you can choose between list and icon view. List view in combination with folders make it very easy to organise and thus find any vm. It's the same setup you'd use in Finder because it is one of the most easiest and best ways of organising files. In Finder you have to select the vm file and open quicklook for a quick view what it is. In the vm library you only select the vm (1 step less).

There is only 1 thing that is easier to do in Finder than in the vm library: select certain vm's and then launching them. That's actually the only real difference between using the Finder to manage the vm's or use the vm library. Fusion only behaves the way nearly all OS X apps do. You'll most likely run into the same problems when using Parallels or Virtualbox. It's just how most OS X stuff works. The only way around it is by simply closing all the vm's (documents/files if you are in another OS X app) before quitting Fusion which is easily done by option clicking on the red button (or option-cmd-w).

[CylonGlitch]

Since you don't understand the process you don't see the benefits in it. Your comments are not applicable to our process. Thank you for your input but it is not accurate.

[EmmEff]

Originally Posted by MLshK

It seems as if parallels optimises its code for the current release of each OS, and that gives it problems when Ubuntu or Fedora make an update, resulting in kernel panics of the guest OS, and in general a really bad experience. At the time of this writing, you can't use Ubuntu 12.10 because of a bug, and Gnome 3 in any platform will result in screen flickering which tends to become very annoying.Image

This has been my experience with an earlier version of Parallels as well. I don't recall if it was Ubuntu or CentOS, but I use both for my job and one of them wouldn't install and run without incident so it rendered Parallels useless for me.

All of them have free trials, so be sure to use whatever OS you intend to before committing to purchase. VirtualBox is a solid bet, so long as the hard lockups are fixed and the best performance isn't mandatory.

[dyn]

Originally Posted by CylonGlitch

Since you don't understand the process you don't see the benefits in it. Your comments are not applicable to our process. Thank you for your input but it is not accurate.

In that case it is quite clear that you don't understand what the product is, what it does nor what your own process actually is. Do make an effort in making the product your own by reading the manual and actually trying it out. Your vision of what the product is and what it can and can not do is not accurate.

[jcs801]

Originally Posted by LePigeonBleu

Heya!

I'm looking for a new virtual machine client, and have used Parallels since I started using a Mac. Now, I tried VMWare, and seem to like that too. What I'm wondering is if anyone has come across a comparison of the newest of each.

I can get Parallels for $45 and VMWare for $50.

What do I do? Does anyone have suggestions?

Thanks,

m

If parallels was $10 more than VMWare Fusion, I would get it. Parallels is great.

Oh sh|t my dad works at VMWare. But Parallels is better.

[gallo889]

Just had a cool/creepy Parallels experience ... after installing Centos 5.9 (no problem, works great) and Windows 7 (ditto) on a new iMac, "Windows XP Professional" suddenly appeared in Parallel's list of virtual machines.

Had no idea where it came from. A click started "converting", then "updating", and after about 5 minutes, produced an XP login prompt.

As I looked at the login icon, I recalled that 8 years ago, on the previous iMac G5 machine, I had installed "Virtual PC", a Microsoft emulator package.

The non-native emulator performance was unusable for my application, so after experimentation, dropped it.

Enter the new iMac.

While manually migrating from the iMac G5 PPC architecture, I had incidentally copied the old and forgotten "Virtual PC" ~/Documents directory to the new machine and placed it in a ~/Documents/Archived_System_2004-2013/Documents directory on the new machine.

Parallels apparently trawled the new disk system (creepy), discovered the old emulator setup, recognized it, knew how to convert it, and did so (cool part).

It took 2 hours and about 80 attempts before I hit on the password from 8 years ago. But it logged me into XP and everything was there, just as it was left. And the now-native performance on a modern Mac was blazing.

[SilentLoner]

I know that dual boot is the best solution but sometimes I just want to dip into windows for my job. Is parallels the best solution or is there a better virtualization solution?

[balamw]

Which Mac? Which Windows? What do you need to do under Windows?

What has your experience been with Parallels so far? ....

B

[XxS4CR3DxX]

I use parallels 8 on my MacBook Pro with windows 7 and works perfect, as I don't have to have windows open with a start menu or anything as it makes a folder on the dock called windows program's and when you open one it opens in a window on you Mac OS its decently worth it

[rost12]

Just a bit of personal experience...

Decided to purchase VMWare Fusion yesterday, through their website, and even though my transaction has gone through and I've received my license key in the mail, I am still not able to download Fusion client because their system tells me my user account is under "review".

Here's the message I get:
"Confirm that you provided a valid first name, last name, address, and country when you registered. If you did not, update your My VMware profile and try to download again.

If you do not receive an update after 3 business days, please try again."

I have given value name, address and country when I registered. I am NOT willing to wait 3 business days. The whole point of buying software online is that I get to download it instantly after my purchase has gone through. This is absurd.

Their customer support phones in UK never seem to be answered either.

Joy :/

[Oldmanmac]

"Parallels has screwed me enough times that I no longer care to give them money. Add to that they also have advertising that cannot be turned off in their application.

If I were to spend money on any of them, it would be VMWare."

+1

[MichaelLAX]

Whether it's Parallels or VMWare Fusion, you can now purchase Snow Leopard Server from the Apple Store at a 95% discount: $19.99 + sales tax & shipping: 1.800.MYAPPLE (1.800.692.7753) - Apple Part Number: MC588Z/A (telephone orders only)

Rosetta can easily be restored for Lion or Mt. Lion users needing access to their PowerPC applications:

Here is Adobe's CS2 Photoshop running in Snow Leopard Server in Parallels:

[click on image to enlarge]

[palmharbor]

I bought this software in November from Newegg b/c it had a $20 rebate.
I am still waiting for my money...I called them three weeks ago and thy said it was on the way...still waiting. This is a Russian owned and founded company.
Business Ethics is not part of the Russian Capitalist model.
After a big hassle I finally got support from them by phone but I can tell U they do everything possible to keep you from getting real time, human support including keeping the phone number secret...888-811-2489....you will have to go through about ten prompts and some will go nowhere.

[Snarl]

Been using VMWare Fusion 5 for a little while and I'm pretty happy with it. I currently run a Windows 7 64Bit VM and Linux Mint Nadia with Mate also 64Bit VM. Both run great, I have has some issue with Fedora 18 and Ubuntu 12.10 however that seems to be common with Parallels/VMWare and 3D. I've had a little experience with Parallels 8 and had no issue with it, VMWare just looked like the better buy.

[MichaelLAX]

MacUpdate March 2013 10 apps bundle $49 including Parallels 8