parallel desktop anyone?

[nyssa]

hi everyone,

have been using bootcamp and all.
but kinda sick of restarting all the time to switch around.
been looking thru online for parallel desktop but came across a few softwares

just wanna know which one most are using?
or any highly recommendations??

thanks

 

[simsaladimbamba]

There is also VMWare Fusion (commercial) and Sun's Virtual Box (free) to virtualise Windows in Mac OS X.
http://guides.macrumors.com/Booting_Windows_on_the_Mac
I used Parallels back in 2007/8 but eventually went with Fusion, though I haven't upgraded to the newest version as I don't use Windows for more than four hours per year as it seems.

 

[gks]

hi everyone,

have been using bootcamp and all.
but kinda sick of restarting all the time to switch around.
been looking thru online for parallel desktop but came across a few softwares

just wanna know which one most are using?
or any highly recommendations??

thanks

There are 3 options... VMWare Fusion, Parallels Desktop and VirtualBox

I have VMWare and like it. I had an older version of Parallels, it too wasn't bad. I think I ended up with VMWare because they're a larger company and thus I expect more support from them. Plus they've proven themselves over the years as capable of doing virtualization software well.

 

[neko girl]

You can use VMWare and Parallels to run your Bootcamp partition Windows inside your Mac OS X, too!

 

[maflynn]

My first recommendation is to do a search, as the topic matter has been discussed quite a lot.

My $.02 on this as follows.
Parallels - faster performance then the other virtualization products, more buggy, i.e., less stable. They tend to rush updates out the door without fully testing them making the product even less stable. Support sux, just look at their forums.

VMware - not as speedy as parallels, but the updates are more thought out and stable. I've never had a problem with vmware and their support is top notch. I have needed to enter a support ticket over the years and I've always got an answer back within that day to resolve the problem

Virtual Box - its slower then the other two, less features and is now owned by oracle, so I'm not sure what the future holds for virtual box. Oracle's track record for open source is horrid

In the end, I felt that vmware provided the best bang for my dollar by providing great stability, good features and nice update cycle. Now if you want to play games or need faster opengl/directx support parallels will be the better option

 

[nyssa]

thanks guys,
i'll go search and maybe try out for vmware

 

[GGJstudios]

thanks guys,
i'll go search and maybe try out for vmware

If you want more information, here are just a few of many threads on this topic, found by searching the forum with MRoogle:

CrossOver vs Parallels vs Fusion
Parallels or VMware Fusion?
VMware Fusion 3 vs. Parallels Desktop 5
Parallels 5 vs VMWare Fusion 3
Parallels or VMware Fusion?
Windows 7 XP Mode with Parallels or Fusion?
Which path, Bootcamp, Parallels, or Fusion?
Bootcamp Vs Parallels Vs Fusion?
windows 7 bootcamp+fusion/parallels speed.
Bootcamp, Parallels Desktop 5 or VMWare Fusion 3
Vmware Fusion 3 or Parallels 5 for a MBA RevC
VMware Fusion 3 or Parallels Desktop 5
VMware Fusion or Parallels or ????
Fusion 3.0 vs. Parallels 5.0 Discussion
VM Fusion, Parallels or Bootcamp to play games?
Fusion vs Parallels?
Parallels 4 or VMware Fusion 2 on Snow Leopard?

 

[JIRL]

VMware or Parallels

thanks guys,
i'll go search and maybe try out for vmware

Hi Guys,
I purchased Parallels 6 last November to run some Windows applications on a Windows 7 Virtual Machine.

At first I was highly impressed with the integration between the Mac and W7 VM. It is certainly very slick!

That being said, I have also had too many issues with Parallels. So much so, that I am now trialling VMware Fusion.

So far, regardless of all that I have read about the two products, Fusion is far more stable and is faster than Parallels.

From what I can gather, a lot of websites rave on about the difference in speed between the two products. In particular applications that are heavy on graphics are "supposed" to run faster on Parallels rather than Fusion.

That being said, when you are left with rebooting your VM several times a day under Parallels, it gets to be extremely painful to use.

Yes, there are differences between the two products and Parallels is probably better integrated with the Mac as it can handle track pad gestures in the Windows 7 VM that I am running which is certainly an advantage. However Fusion is faster and very stable (version 3.1.2) and it has some very nice features over Parallels.

If you are running Windows 7 and run the Windows Experience Index this will give you a better indication as to how your VM is/will behave. For me, Parallels was 2.0 (weighed down by the Graphics index) whereas Fusion is 4.8 with the Graphics Index at 5.9.

Best to trial the two and see how you get on. In that regard, setup Parallels and then you can always import the Parallels VM into Fusion. Just remember to remove Parallels Tools first before you integrate the Parallels VM into Fusion!

I am using a Mac Book Pro (2009), Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB ram.