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Virtual Machines - Best Host Software

crjackson2134

crjackson2134

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 6, 2013
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Charlotte, NC
The title pretty much says it all. I want to run a couple of OS's in a VM (Linux & Win7/Win8).

Which VM is better Parallels, Fusion or Virtualbox?

Thanks for the advice...
 
Stooby Mcdoobie

Stooby Mcdoobie

macrumors 6502a
Jun 26, 2012
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VirtualBox is free, but Parallels and Fusion are more intuitive for beginners and have more features. Parallels and Fusion both have trial versions; download all three and see which you like best.
 
F

Fed

macrumors 6502
Jul 7, 2012
409
0
Liverpool.
I use VMWare Workstation on Windows and VirtualBox on Mac.

VMWare has some really good features but never tried it on the Mac (does it exist?).
 
Stooby Mcdoobie

Stooby Mcdoobie

macrumors 6502a
Jun 26, 2012
833
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crjackson2134 said:
VMWare vs Parallels. - What draws you to VMWare?
Click to expand...

Parallels lost me as a customer last year when they were charging full price to existing customers to upgrade to the latest version (I don't mind paying for the latest and greatest, but I feel they should have given a discount to those already using their product). This wouldn't have been such a big deal, but version 7 was buggy in Mountain Lion - so you were pretty much forced to upgrade Parallels, or downgrade OS X. Anyway, VMWare was offering a discount on their software to existing Parallels customers, and it was cheaper than what I would have paid to upgrade Parallels, so I made the switch.

TL;DR: mostly a grudge I have with Parallels.

They're essentially the same and have most of the same features - both great software. That's why I suggested to download the trial versions and play around to see which you like more.
 
crjackson2134

crjackson2134

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 6, 2013
4,755
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Charlotte, NC
Stooby Mcdoobie said:
Parallels lost me as a customer last year when they were charging full price to existing customers to upgrade to the latest version (I don't mind paying for the latest and greatest, but I feel they should have given a discount to those already using their product). This wouldn't have been such a big deal, but version 7 was buggy in Mountain Lion - so you were pretty much forced to upgrade Parallels, or downgrade OS X. Anyway, VMWare was offering a discount on their software to existing Parallels customers, and it was cheaper than what I would have paid to upgrade Parallels, so I made the switch.

TL;DR: mostly a grudge I have with Parallels.

They're essentially the same and have most of the same features - both great software. That's why I suggested to download the trial versions and play around to see which you like more.
Click to expand...

I was asking because often times I find that other users may have some unconsidered or specific knowledge about advantages or disadvantages. I just want the most responsive available with easy to use feature set

I already have VMWare but haven't installed it. I'll probably use tat unless you tell me Parallels is faster or has a fuller feature set.

----------
Fed said:
I use VMWare Workstation on Windows and VirtualBox on Mac.

VMWare has some really good features but never tried it on the Mac (does it exist?).
Click to expand...

I never could get VirtualBox USB support working with Linux. Also had some other minor issues. Avoiding this one unless it's much better on OSX as opposed Linux.
 
crjackson2134

crjackson2134

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 6, 2013
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Charlotte, NC
musio said:
What's so bad about virtualbox? It's free & cross platform
Click to expand...

I already stated above. Would prefer something else. I spent a lot of time getting no where with USB and seamless configuring. Had very limited success. It could have been me, my hardware, or VirtualBox, but I want to move on to a different product, hopefully with better results.
 
Stooby Mcdoobie

Stooby Mcdoobie

macrumors 6502a
Jun 26, 2012
833
40
crjackson2134 said:
I was asking because often times I find that other users may have some unconsidered or specific knowledge about advantages or disadvantages. I just want the most responsive available with easy to use feature set

I already have VMWare but haven't installed it. I'll probably use tat unless you tell me Parallels is faster or has a fuller feature set.
Click to expand...

I didn't notice any difference in speed/performance between Parallels and VMWare. And as far as I'm aware, they have the same major features:
- Boot Camp virtualization
- drag & drop files across host/VM and vice versa
- "coherence" mode (Parallels) vs "unity" mode (VMWare)


Sorry that doesn't help narrow anything down, but I don't think you'd regret buying either as you wouldn't really be missing out on anything.
 
M

monkeybagel

macrumors 65816
Jul 24, 2011
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United States
crjackson2134 said:
Actually that helped a lot. I'll be installing VMWare tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Have always been a VMware Fusion user and very happy. Run it on all OS X machines and is very stable. Virtualize Windows 7 Enterprise in Boot Camp partition for production use on a Mac Pro 12-core.

They have two versions- if you need more advanced networking features, they have that available.
 
crjackson2134

crjackson2134

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 6, 2013
4,755
1,917
Charlotte, NC
Thanks to everyone for their input. I went with VMWare Fusion. I think it's the fullest featured version.

Got to say I love it. For me personally, it knocks the socks off of VirtualBox (which I used for years on Ubuntu).

I've got 3 VM's installed right now, and a couple more to install. Everything is running great.

Thanks again... :D
 
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