Best option for VMs in 2018?

[bulldoze]

I am doing a fresh install on a new MacBook Pro 13 quad code.

I had a very old version of VMware Fusion to run all my test linux VMs which worked ok. As I am doing a fresh install there is no way to transfer just VMware over so I am looking at different options now.

- VMware Fusion has gone up in price hugely and I can't find it anywhere for less than £80 pounds UK
- Parallels is similarly expensive
- Not sure if Virtualbox is as slick as the other two options but might explore that option

- I have seen Parallels Lite on the App Store which is free? what is the catch with this one? why is it free?

 

[chscag]

Why don't you try VirtualBox? Since it's free, you've nothing to lose except maybe some of your time.

 

[bulldoze]

Why don't you try VirtualBox? Since it's free, you've nothing to lose except maybe some of your time.

I think I might have to try virtual box. I did find the license key for VMware Fusion 7 and installed that from the VMware site. Entered the license key and all looked good but every time I start it up it comes up with the MacOS warning 'This is an application downloaded from the internet are you sure you want to run?'

I copied over one of my vmdk and tried to run it but I just get internal error as well

 

[CloudSynced]

I am doing a fresh install on a new MacBook Pro 13 quad code.

I had a very old version of VMware Fusion to run all my test linux VMs which worked ok. As I am doing a fresh install there is no way to transfer just VMware over so I am looking at different options now.

- VMware Fusion has gone up in price hugely and I can't find it anywhere for less than £80 pounds UK
- Parallels is similarly expensive
- Not sure if Virtualbox is as slick as the other two options but might explore that option

- I have seen Parallels Lite on the App Store which is free? what is the catch with this one? why is it free?

I just picked up VMWare Fusion 10 Pro for $111.99 on their website. They were running a "Black Friday in July" sale. Regular price was $159.99. Since I use VMWare at both jobs, it was the obvious choice for me.

Are you a student? Or do you have access to a student/teacher/parent of student email address? The student discounts are always attractive.

 

[thisismyusername]

VirtualBox is more than good enough for what most folks need. I'm not going to say that it's better than VMWare or Parallels but I don't think they're worth the money.

 

[dogslobber]

- I have seen Parallels Lite on the App Store which is free? what is the catch with this one? why is it free?

They only charge for the Windows OS as a guest so Linux and other Mac OS guests are allowed to run unimpeded. It really is a nice solid piece of software and after using it for a year with Linux I don't think I could go back to using VirtualBox.

 

[jasnw]

I've been running VMWare Fusion for several years, but will need to ante up for a new version when I (eventually) move up from El Cap to Mohave. The two free options I've started looking at are the new version of VirtualBox (6.0 just released) or Parallels Lite. Looking at the differences between Parallels and Lite the only issue I see that might be a problem for me is sharing files from the VM system (most probably only Linux) to the host system (OS X). I can't sort out from the jargon in this list whether or not that's supported in Lite (https://kb.parallels.com/en/123796). Anyone have hands-on experience with this?