Bootcamp, VMware Fusion or Parallels for Windows/Android Development

[Supercell]

Hello,

I'm buying the new high end 15" MacBook Pro in a week. It's going go be my main computer for software development for iOS, Android and Windows.

I still have the following questions:
1. Will I notice a huge difference in performance when running Windows using Bootcamp vs running it in a virtual environment? CPU, Disk I/O etc? Mainly using Windows to write and test software. Multiple VS2012 solutions, local databases, multiple browser windows, etc, will be open at the same time. I basicly want everything to feel smooth.
2. For Android development; should I go for Windows or Mac? Is there any difference at all, except the platform?

Thanks.

 

[diman1881]

Looking for the same

Also looking for best options for Windows Dev/ Test / UAT environments.

 

[mac8867]

1. Will I notice a huge difference in performance when running Windows using Bootcamp vs running it in a virtual environment? CPU, Disk I/O etc? Mainly using Windows to write and test software. Multiple VS2012 solutions, local databases, multiple browser windows, etc, will be open at the same time. I basicly want everything to feel smooth.

Yes, it will cost you lots of time shutting down and restarting to the other OS. For practical purposes, I have never had any issue using Virtual machines. I tried bootcamp for a bout a month years ago, and just hated rebooting and all that reserved disk space it needed.

take a look at VirtualBox for virtualization, support your openware community (and save your money)

2. For Android development; should I go for Windows or Mac? Is there any difference at all, except the platform?

Mac... mac mac mac... the guys who build the IDE's run macs (yup, it's true ;-)

 

[Dekard]

shouldn't run into much issues with parallels and mac... I am a iOS developer and I do handle some Android, windows issues so I do have a Bootcamp partition for my gaming and windows needs. I use parallels to use if I need to go back and forth easily.

I reboot and goto Bootcamp for my gaming. With the SSD it takes about 10 seconds or so from hitting restart, not much wasted time imo.. but too each their own..

 

[tubbymac]

I started with bootcamp when I first got my Macbook to run Visual Studio, etc. Back in those days before SSD, bootcamp was noticeably faster than Parallels/VMWare, etc.

Once SSDs became mainstream the performance differences became negligible. In fact, I switched to Parallels because with the SSD it's now faster in terms of resuming the virtual machine than rebooting into bootcamp.

So these days virtualization is much faster in terms of time to get into Visual Studio. Battery life is also better (hard to believe) due to Parallels not being forced to use the discrete graphics like in Bootcamp.

Really the ONLY advantage to using Bootcamp these days is for gaming. In all other cases, you should use Parallels / VMWare / VirtualBox, etc.

As for Android development it's actually better on the Mac. On Windows I had to install device drivers for most phones that I wanted to plug into the USB port. On Mac all the drivers already come installed with OS X so you never have to install anything. Just plug and play all Android devices. It's 100% the better choice - everything else is equal.