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Parallels 9 vs. Fusion 6 (Merged)

B

bsmr

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 4, 2005
1,182
317
Germany
Hi,

I'm thinking about upgrading Fusion 5. But I'm not shure to go with Fusion or with Parallels.

What about your opinions/choice?
I wanna have a fast and stable system (only using office programs on Win 7/64) .

I read, that Parallels embeds itself very much in the system (kext, launchds...) - but for me I can't find any embeddings (maybe I'm searching the wrong way?)

My System:
rMBP 2.6GHz 16GB RAM, 512SSD
 
It's all personal preference.
If you like parallels, get that, if not Fusion.

I found Fusion to be more stable and have better support in prior versions. I've not yet upgraded to version 6 however.

I also don't like the idea that Parallels shows ads, being a paid app - bad precedent and one that I don't want to reward with giving them my money.
 
VMware has more raw horsepower, so it gives you much more CPU power when using Windows in VMware.

Parallels offers better graphics support.

For me, I use VMware because it's more stable, easier to deploy and easier to use.

VMware is more enterprise-oriented, Parallels is more consumer-oriented.

VMware for me all the way.
 
I have v8 parallels and v5 fusion (running on different boxes)
They are both stable i dont agree that fusion is more stable.
I prefer paratells because it has much more configurable options and doesnt pre allocate all the RAM so you can over subscribe.
I havent looked at what the newer versions of both have to offer.
 
Thanks so far.

Actually I wanna go with Fusion.
But better battery-management, USB3.0 support (under Win7) under Parallels isn't that bad at all.

EDIT:
And what about launchd, kext,... Are Parallels and Fusion there on the same way (don't wanna have some daemons, extensions still running - even if I don't use the app itself.
 
I have just removed Parallels from my systems and am moving to a totally Fusion based setup. I currently have licenses for Fusion 4, Parallels 7 and 8.

I have 3 mac's and want to run VM's on 2 of them. A single license for Fusion will allow for me to run it on up to 3 (http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/compare.html).

Another big factor was that Parallels are not supporting 7 on Mavericks - it will actually break and your only option is to upgrade (http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?290901-Parallels-Desktop-7-OS-X-10-9-Mavericks). At the cost of these licenses, I find that ridiculous.

I am buying the upgrade for Fusion to version 6 tonight.
 
Have a parallels 8 license and removed it and now run VMWare 6 with windows 8.1 pro
 
I bought upgrades to both Parallels 9 and VMWare Fusion 6. VMWare upgrade didn't really promise anything new but I bought it to run OS X Mavericks server VM while still on Mountain Lion. Parallels, as usual, promised a nice speed bump though frankly I don't see it. I find the performance of Parallels 9 and VMWare Fusion 6 is similar - when running Dragon NaturallySpeaking on Windows. I prefer the VMWare interface to Parallels though. No crashes on either. Also, VMWare Fusion license is good for installing on all your Macs (last time I checked) whereas Parallels Desktop is activation-locked to one Mac.
 
I have owned both Parallels 8 and Fusion 5. At this time I haven't upgraded either. I will wait and see.

I used Fusion5 at work and it was excellent, reliable and very stable. VMWare images can be copied to windows machines and run with the free VMWare Player; thus making it very nice for development.

Parallels 8 I have at home, and only purchased it for a few minor things that I haven't found replacements for in OSX. I would have purchased Fusion but I found Parallels 8 for $20 from NewEgg when buying something else that I was already buying. Thus the price point was worth it.

I like the Fusion interface MUCH better than Parallels, but overall, they are very similar.
 
Parallels brought back the start menu to Windows 8.


I use Parallels because there is always some sort if upgrade promotion that works in your favor.

I bought Parallels 8 for 29.99 and got the upgrade 9 a few weeks ago. I never see any deals like that for fusion.
 
I am using parallels 8, can't decide if 9 is worth it.

I ran Fusion for quite some time, I had issues with bringing my Macbook pro retina with 16 gigs of memory to an absolute standstill if i needed to connect to one of our firewalls or vshpere. No mouse input, just locked it up and i would have to wait a minute or two. I gave parallels 8 a try and the issue has not happened again so I dunno. My past experience during fusion 4 and parallels 6 was the opposite LOL
 
maflynn said:
It's all personal preference.
If you like parallels, get that, if not Fusion.

I found Fusion to be more stable and have better support in prior versions. I've not yet upgraded to version 6 however.

I also don't like the idea that Parallels shows ads, being a paid app - bad precedent and one that I don't want to reward with giving them my money.
Click to expand...

Is it possible to install Parallels or Fusion and Windows XP without creating a partition?
 
alainking said:
Another big factor was that Parallels are not supporting 7 on Mavericks - it will actually break and your only option is to upgrade (http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?290901-Parallels-Desktop-7-OS-X-10-9-Mavericks). At the cost of these licenses, I find that ridiculous.

I am buying the upgrade for Fusion to version 6 tonight.
Click to expand...

This is the biggest reason I'm looking into fusion now. I've had parallels since I bought my Mac but between mandatory updates every year and the ads on a fully licensed version I'm getting tired of their business practices. However, my uses are more convenience that required so I'm holding off for a little while anyway.
 
I bought a Mac Mini on eBay that had a fresh install of Lion. Since I do not have the installation media, how can I use Bootcamp or Fusion? Is it now possible to create a partition without destroying the OS and the applications?

This Mac Mini is not capable of upgrading to Mountain Lion.
 
maccompaq said:
Is it possible to install Parallels or Fusion and Windows XP without creating a partition?
Click to expand...

Yes, neither require a partition. They can run off of a partition if one exists; otherwise they create an image file of whatever size you want and that will work the same as a partition.

----------
maccompaq said:
I bought a Mac Mini on eBay that had a fresh install of Lion. Since I do not have the installation media, how can I use Bootcamp or Fusion? Is it now possible to create a partition without destroying the OS and the applications?
Click to expand...

Sounds like a PowerPC mini, if so then no, it can't run Fusion or Parallels or Bootcamp. If it is a Core2Duo then it should work, just slowly. Yes you can repartition your hard drive without losing anything, you just need to have enough room.
 
Had a few problems with Parallels on the Mac while meanwhile finding Fusion to be fast, functional and stable. So Fusion has been my choice. I've tried Parallels a few times just to see if I was missing something and each time went back to Fusion.

But I must confess that another reason I've preferred Fusion is that I used Parallels on Windows years ago and found the company's support to be absolutely terrible. Perhaps they treat their Mac customers better. It's not like VMWare's support wins any prizes, but Parallels treated their Windows customers like absolute crap, either ignoring them or making promises they would subsequently break over and over and over.

I also run a specialized Linux virtual machine in VirtualBox on my OS X server. It's entirely satisfactory, but most of my Fusion VMs need very high performance USB connectivity for one reason or another, and Fusion's USB functionality has been good while VirtualBox's is said to be somewhat less so. I haven't verified that for myself, though. Anyway, VirtualBox is free and might be worth a look too: https://www.virtualbox.org

----------
gCloud said:
Thanks for that, I was going to upgrade to mavrics this PM, not anymore.
Click to expand...

Actually if you use VMs on a laptop there is very good reason to go Mavericks.

First, Fusion 6.0.1 runs really well on Mavericks. Mavericks' new memory-management technology keeps its footprint compact. And Fusion supports Mavericks' App Nap functionality, which will significantly improve battery life when running a VM. Since VMs (especially running Windows) tend to be terrible power hogs, this is a significant benefit.

Of course, as another poster noted, there are issues with Win 7 in Parallels on Mavericks, but that's a Parallels issue and can be addressed with an upgrade.
 
What do you guys mean that Parallels has ads on the full license? Do you mean when running Windows that I will get ad popups? If so that is terrible. Please advise. I plan to install something today, and I was going to get Parallels 9, but I don't want ad popups.
 
I have Parallels 8 and Fusion 4 running on my MBP with 10.9 and I think I will get the Parallels 9.1 because they have to fix for the new Linux kernel , but for Windows 7/XP is already OK.
I don't see big difference between the two at list for how I use my VMs, all full screen ;)
So my idea is try both and get the one you like :D
:cool:
 
Scott7975 said:
What do you guys mean that Parallels has ads on the full license? Do you mean when running Windows that I will get ad popups? If so that is terrible. Please advise. I plan to install something today, and I was going to get Parallels 9, but I don't want ad popups.
Click to expand...

Glad you asked this. I have Parallels 9 on two machines and have never seen an ad of any kind.
 
Scott7975 said:
What do you guys mean that Parallels has ads on the full license? Do you mean when running Windows that I will get ad popups? If so that is terrible. Please advise. I plan to install something today, and I was going to get Parallels 9, but I don't want ad popups.
Click to expand...

Not sure about 9 (only have 8), but the ads aren't popup or anything, they are very unobtrusive. It's been so long since I noticed them, that I don't even remember where they show up (during setup maybe?). That said, it's pretty distasteful for an app this expensive to have ads in it.
 
Just want to run Office 2011. Will both of them let me run it seamless mode? I.e. Word icon in dock than launches it, and association with docx, so opening files from Finder launches Word, without any VM UI.

I understand VirtualBox can't do any of this.
 
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