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Getting a new iMac, should I get VMWare or Parallels?

N

nimbuscloud

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 9, 2007
158
0
Hello Mac elites!

My IT boss is letting me get an iMac for work! I'm happy! I'll be using it for webdesign, but I need to know if VMWare Fusion is really better than Parallels. I will need to use Windows XP for Office, IE, and TrackIt.

Does anyone have the current versions of VMWare or Parallels? I need your opinions. I have to turn in a quote by the end of the week.

Any help is much needed. Thanks a ton.

:apple:
 
VMware is a much better program. I have used it for awhile now and have never looked back. I used to use Parallels which worked fine for me but there were a few annoying bugs and glitch's. So far with the Fusion I haven't had any problems.
 
tibi08 said:
I've tried both, VMware Fusion is better. Parallels crashed a lot and is generally unhelpful.
Click to expand...

I'll have to disagree and say... oh... actually, yes, I read it wrong... Parallels always crashed for me and VMware Fusion is running NetWare, XP, Vista and Ubuntu flawlessly.
 
at the risk of stealing this thread

I also prefer vmware but how do you get XP to see a USB drive? The USB icon in the lower right show up lit in blue but the drive just is not there. Thanks... and sorry...
 
vansouza said:
I also prefer vmware but how do you get XP to see a USB drive? The USB icon in the lower right show up lit in blue but the drive just is not there. Thanks... and sorry...
Click to expand...

You need to choose "connect to" the drive in the Virtual Machine menu. This transfers "ownership" of the device to the virtual machine. The same works for printers, CDs etc too...
 
**** i use parallels.. but after reading this thread I just started downloading a torrent for VMWare lol. I'll tell you if it's really all it's cracked up to be.
 
I'm new to the Boot Camp/Intel/Vista way of working.

I have just installed Vista Ultimate using a Boot Camp partition on my new MacBook Pro and was wondering if using VWWare/Parallels is a better way to use Windows? Will I lose speed if I run Windows through these emulators as opposed to Boot Camp?

I will always prefer to use OS X but having been Mac OS all my professional computing life (since 1991), it's nice to have the option to dabble in Windows.

In a nutshell, why use the emulators over Boot Camp?

Thanks to you all in advance.
 
Wow, you guys are being really misleading! VMWare Fusion is NOT much better, anything it does better than Parallels it does marginally better at best, and is actually significantly behind Parallels in features and usability IMO. My advise is if integration with the Mac OS is important to you, then go with Parallels. Only if you don't need those features should you bother with Fusion. Opening and transferring files from the Mac OS into Fusion requires a lot more work, because Fusion has no equivalent of Parallels' "SmartSelect" feature, and it doesn't have the ability to mount Windows disks on the Mac desktop. It makes a big difference when you need to work with Windows applications frequently, because it means you don't need to be transferring files between the Windows and Mac desktops or navigating to a shared folder to open a file. You shouldn't have stability problems with Parallels if you stick to using stable releases (it seems that Parallels has learned their lesson about making sure that the beta releases are kept separate from the stable, but that won't stop people from claiming that Fusion is more stable because when they used a beta of Parallels it was unstable :rolleyes:).
 
I just bought Fusion today, its great! Im running a SR MBP with 4GB of ram, allocated 1gb to vmware, 2 virtual cores, running office type stuff... seamlessly. I'd encourage it. I used parallels at school, not my thing. :)
 
brkirch said:
Wow, you guys are being really misleading! VMWare Fusion is NOT much better, anything it does better than Parallels it does marginally better at best, and is actually significantly behind Parallels in features and usability IMO. My advise is if integration with the Mac OS is important to you, then go with Parallels. Only if you don't need those features should you bother with Fusion. Opening and transferring files from the Mac OS into Fusion requires a lot more work, because Fusion has no equivalent of Parallels' "SmartSelect" feature, and it doesn't have the ability to mount Windows disks on the Mac desktop. It makes a big difference when you need to work with Windows applications frequently, because it means you don't need to be transferring files between the Windows and Mac desktops or navigating to a shared folder to open a file. You shouldn't have stability problems with Parallels if you stick to using stable releases (it seems that Parallels has learned their lesson about making sure that the beta releases are kept separate from the stable, but that won't stop people from claiming that Fusion is more stable because when they used a beta of Parallels it was unstable :rolleyes:).
Click to expand...

I agree with your stability point, but the reason I'm considering switching from Parallels to VMWare is precisely stuff like SmartSelect. In my world (i.e. applies only to me, does not denigrate others' choices, etc), I want to keep the vm's from 'polluting' my OS X space. Every time I create a new image, I have to remember to kill SmartSelect, doublecheck whether any Windows shortcut folders have been created and so on. Every time I forget, I get my 'Open with' dialog polluted with Windows apps. Geh!

If only SmartSelect wasn't on by default.....
 
Poogis said:
I'm new to the Boot Camp/Intel/Vista way of working.

I have just installed Vista Ultimate using a Boot Camp partition on my new MacBook Pro and was wondering if using VWWare/Parallels is a better way to use Windows? Will I lose speed if I run Windows through these emulators as opposed to Boot Camp?

Thanks to you all in advance.
Click to expand...

Its just that you dont have to restart to use the windows software. Its more convenient to have all the applications at one time, rather than plan out what you need to do ahead of time. Its just convenience.... for a price. And no, i dont see a significant difference, since it will just be running small programs. Gaming wise, i'd suggest you go boot into windows anyways.

just my 2 cents.
 
Well I've used both and they both do the job.

I guess it depends on how you see yourself as a computer user.

I'd say vmware is certainly better if you are more techincally minded.
 
brkirch said:
Wow, you guys are being really misleading! VMWare Fusion is NOT much better, anything it does better than Parallels it does marginally better at best, and is actually significantly behind Parallels in features and usability IMO. My advise is if integration with the Mac OS is important to you, then go with Parallels. Only if you don't need those features should you bother with Fusion. Opening and transferring files from the Mac OS into Fusion requires a lot more work, because Fusion has no equivalent of Parallels' "SmartSelect" feature, and it doesn't have the ability to mount Windows disks on the Mac desktop. It makes a big difference when you need to work with Windows applications frequently, because it means you don't need to be transferring files between the Windows and Mac desktops or navigating to a shared folder to open a file. You shouldn't have stability problems with Parallels if you stick to using stable releases (it seems that Parallels has learned their lesson about making sure that the beta releases are kept separate from the stable, but that won't stop people from claiming that Fusion is more stable because when they used a beta of Parallels it was unstable :rolleyes:).
Click to expand...

Well... you disagree with the bulk of the responders... it's a leap to say that all of us are being terribly misleading.

I was actually surprised to read that Parallels SmartSelect was a feature, I assumed it was a nasty bug until I learned how to turn it off! Nothing like clicking on an attachment in an email in OS X and unexpectedly having the Parallels VM, then Windows, then a Windows app load when you expected it to load in preview as it always had. That's aggressively intrusive default behavior.

Anecdotal experience only, but I've had a night-and-day experience with Parallels and Fusion when judged by performance, intuitiveness and stability.
 
brkirch said:
Wow, you guys are being really misleading! VMWare Fusion is NOT much better, anything it does better than Parallels it does marginally better at best, and is actually significantly behind Parallels in features and usability IMO. My advise is if integration with the Mac OS is important to you, then go with Parallels. Only if you don't need those features should you bother with Fusion. Opening and transferring files from the Mac OS into Fusion requires a lot more work, because Fusion has no equivalent of Parallels' "SmartSelect" feature, and it doesn't have the ability to mount Windows disks on the Mac desktop. It makes a big difference when you need to work with Windows applications frequently, because it means you don't need to be transferring files between the Windows and Mac desktops or navigating to a shared folder to open a file. You shouldn't have stability problems with Parallels if you stick to using stable releases (it seems that Parallels has learned their lesson about making sure that the beta releases are kept separate from the stable, but that won't stop people from claiming that Fusion is more stable because when they used a beta of Parallels it was unstable :rolleyes:).
Click to expand...

Dragging and dropping files onto the VM desktop is hard? *looks around* What could really be more easy?
 
Poogis said:
I'm new to the Boot Camp/Intel/Vista way of working.

I have just installed Vista Ultimate using a Boot Camp partition on my new MacBook Pro and was wondering if using VWWare/Parallels is a better way to use Windows? Will I lose speed if I run Windows through these emulators as opposed to Boot Camp?

I will always prefer to use OS X but having been Mac OS all my professional computing life (since 1991), it's nice to have the option to dabble in Windows.

In a nutshell, why use the emulators over Boot Camp?

Thanks to you all in advance.
Click to expand...

Because it saves rebooting the machine. Boot Camp will always be faster than the virtualisation options by third party companies. But it is a pain to have to restart to use Windows. It just comes down to convenience really. Plus being able to run Solaris / Linux through VMware is a pretty big plus (for me at least).
 
I'll have to go with vmware also...
I tried both and vmware just feels snappier.
 
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