Virtual Machines - Best Host Software

[crjackson2134]

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]

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.

 

[Fed]

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]

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

Fusion = VMWare Fusion

 

[Fed]

Fusion = VMWare Fusion

Ah! Same drag and drop functionality? TBH, anything but Hyper-V...

 

[Stooby Mcdoobie]

Ah! Same drag and drop functionality? TBH, anything but Hyper-V...

Yep! Parallels also has drag/drop functionality, but I use and prefer VMWare Fusion over it.

 

[crjackson2134]

Yep! Parallels also has drag/drop functionality, but I use and prefer VMWare Fusion over it.

VMWare vs Parallels. - What draws you to VMWare?

 

[Stooby Mcdoobie]

VMWare vs Parallels. - What draws you to VMWare?

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]

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.

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.

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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?).

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.

 

[TwoBytes]

What's so bad about virtualbox? It's free & cross platform

 

[crjackson2134]

What's so bad about virtualbox? It's free & cross platform

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]

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.

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.

 

[crjackson2134]

Actually that helped a lot. I'll be installing VMWare tomorrow.

 

[monkeybagel]

Actually that helped a lot. I'll be installing VMWare tomorrow.

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]

Okay, thanks for your input.

 

[crjackson2134]

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...

 

[Stooby Mcdoobie]

Glad you're enjoying it. It's amazing how far virtualization software has come in the last few years.