Parallels or VMware for Linux

[Dr. McKay]

I've been using Virtualbox for some time to test out different Linux distros and they all run pretty well.
VB is good and it's free, but there are however some problems with resolution and full screen display.

I was therefore thinking that either Parallels or VM ware might suit my needs a bit better.
I've read several reviews where Parallels 8 always seems to win vs VMware 5, although only by a small margin.
So I'll assume Parallels is the better one, but is also 50% more expensive. I'm not interested in Windows, only Linux. I need something that will let me switch flawlessly between OS X and Linux without any resolution issues.

Anyone have either Parallels 8 or VMware 5 and running Linux in it ? Which one is the best ?

Edit : never mind. Just read in a review that, even though Ubuntu 13.04 is out, neither VMWare nor Parallels even support 12.10 yet. Disappointing.

 

[maxosx]

I have been fairly happy with VirtualBox for quite some time. That said I also have experienced the same thing that you have. Thus I decided to go all in & setup one of my MBP's with parallels & another with VMware. Since both of these two have the same hardware configurations (both 15" mid 2010 w/ SSD) it's a fun test.

The result thus far is that I'm leaning towards VMware, however I just got these two setup less than a week ago so I have lots of testing yet to do. I will say from my perspective many in the Mac community tend to prefer Parallels when it comes to Windows & OS X, but like you I have a far greater interest in Linux.

Thus far to you're question about resolution, happily I've not experienced that. VMware is looking like the better of the two, but thats only a first impression.

 

[Dr. McKay]

I'd be interested to hear how your testing evolves.
The problem I had in VB was, for some reason, I couldn't get the Guest Additions to install in any other distro but Mint 14, and even then, I had graphical issues/glitches...

 

[fortysomegeek]

I was a big VirtualBox users for a long time. I also used Parallels up to Version 7.

Now, I have switched to Fusion 5 exclusively.
My reasons:

1) multi-license. You can legally install up to 3 macs you own. There is no restriction and I've read you can install on more machines you own personally. Parallels is getting expensive to upgrade all the time.

2) USB/Shared folders.
VirtualBox was problematic with USB devices. Parallels works the same as VMware. Sharing is very good and same with Unity. Unity is making the second OS transparent as part of the Mac OSX.

3) Biggest reason I switch is I am doing a lot of ESXi development. I am provisioning and creating dozens of Virtual Machines that will eventually be deployed on our ESXi VMware servers. With fusion, I can deploy or package my machines easily. In short, "export" my VM to ESXi.
This was my main reason. Also my VM guests easily move from Mac to Linux host easy. I save them to a USB drive and they will run off any VMware player machine by double clicking on the VMX file.


Another cool reason is I can virtualize my old Macs into VMware guests. You can convert old Macs 10.7 and old Xserves into portable VM guests. I am hosting 4-5 old Xserves off my Macbook which is cool.