Getting a mbp today ...virtualization help

I've used VMware for ages, long before intel macs, that's why i did bought it instead of parallells.

Sun have a free app called virtualBox that is supposed to be good, try that out first, it's free.

 

Better use bootcamp, usually this virtual ones are really slow...
Also, better wait for the MBP Refresh which might be coming the 9th of Feb

 

Or the 16th or the 23rd or March 2nd........blah

He didn't ask if he should wait or buy. He said he is buying today. And he'll be more than happy with his purchase- the current 13" MBP is fantastic.


I haven't used it, but I know people who use Fusion, and they like it.

 

at least wait till the end of this month for the MBP updates. dont ya want?

 

I bought Fusion, and I like the interface, but every time I sit at a machine that has Parallels, it seems faster, but more prone to crashes.

So in my mind, I have Fusion as a tad slower, but far more stable and 'Macish' and Parallels more on the bleeding edge with speed, but a little wonky and unstable.

But seriously, unless you HAVE TO HAVE THE MBP TODAY, I would wait.

 

VirtualBox is another good option, and is free:

http://www.virtualbox.org/

 

I'm new to Mac's... A Windows system administrator by trade and a longtime VMware user. I went with Parallels because it was free after rebate from MacMall and after comparing both, Parallels performed MUCH better with Windows 7. I run a Windows 7 VM on a second screen all day for my day-day tasks. Never had a single stability issue. Aero is smooth and actually performs just as well as my previous Lenovo T400 laptop.

+1 for Parallels (my 2 cents)

ohh, and I bought my MacBook Pro 13 almost 10 days ago... no regrets on waiting for the new ones to come out. If you need it now... buy it now. Though I would recommend MacMall as their service was excellent and the price was lower ($1409)

 

I started off with parallels but have since switched to vmware. IMO the biggest advantage for Fusion is that vmware images work on mac, windows and linux.

From what I've read, Vmware's support is much better as well. Parallel's was non-existent last I checked. This might have changed though.

 

Some benchmarks put one above the other.

I've used both, plus VirtualBox and Xen. VMWare isn't exactly a champ in terms of customer service, but Parallels is the single worst and most unresponsive company for customer service that I've ever dealt with. My experience was on the Windows side of their business, and their forums were just a horror-show of users getting no response from them for months and even years of bug report after bug report. I will never buy from them again and would highly recommend against giving them your money. I'd also used VMWare on the Windows side and had no trouble. When I moved to the Mac, it was an easy decision which company to choose.

As to VirtualBox and Xen, the features just aren't there, and they're geared for geeks with lots of time on their hands.

My VMWare Fusion virtual machines are fast and stable on my 1st-generation MacBook Pro with its antique Core Duo (not even Core 2 Duo) processor, maxed out with a feeble 2GB of RAM. USB support is excellent. I have no complaints about VMWare Fusion whatsoever. (Although, there are more options for creating and configuring a virtual machine with VMWare's Workstation software for Windows, which is a minor annoyance.) My virtual machines run at native rates, and it's so nice to be able to switch instantly between Windows or Linux and my lovely Mac OS X environment, which you can't do if you're using Boot Camp. I did the Boot Camp thing for a while and found Fusion to be almost as fast and so much more convenient.

Recommended. I also recommend you max out your RAM right off the bad, and you may find that running your VMs off an external USB or FireWire hard disk (I've had good luck with the Western Digital Passports) can be snappier than VMs hosted on your hard disk.

 

oh, seriously don't murder me i'm just trying to help the guy get the right computer, even fusion could work better on a newer machine

 

Excuse my ignorance, as I've never even owned a Mac, but is Boot Camp not sufficient? Isn't it free?

 

It is free but you have to create a new partition for it and you cannot run it in the same time as OSX. You have to reboot everytime you need windows.

Even if BootCamp is more suitable for gaming (it is more performant) it might not be suitable for people who just need to access Windows for other, non-gpu intensice apps (Word, IE8, ...)

tex

 

+1 for Fusion.

Virtualbox IME is unstable and buggy, especially when updating to a newer version.

 

... That entirely depends on what you do with it.

Fabian

 

Thanks for that,
I've been running fusion 3 for a month and downloaded virtualbox for evaluation and am really pleased as A; its free and B; is comparable to fusion for my adhoc requirements.