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vm fusion or parallels

B

beerglass007

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 13, 2008
566
111
Now that Parallels desktop 4 is out for the mac.

I was looking into getting buying fusion or parallels.

I've seen VM fusion and like the fact you can use the bootcamp drive and mount it like a virtual machine under vm fusion.

Can you do the same in parallels now? and which is better these days ?

Thanks:)
 
Parallels is better these days!

... so yeah, fine, I work for them. Whateva, I can be biased.

To answer your question, though, yes you can use a BootCamp partition with Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac. There's more than one way to do this, including using Parallels Transporter within the partition to back it up separately.

Our feature page is HERE, as well as a comparison of the two products. Note that the phone support for Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac is currently no charge. There are also a few cool YouTube demo videos we have on our channel HERE, many of which sport lovely, serene, trance-inducing music :D.

There's a free trial for the software. It has everything the full version has, just with a 15-day time limit. You're given the option of backing up your data before converting any partition, just in case you choose not to get the full version.
 
Leto-Parallels said:
Parallels is better these days!
Click to expand...

Actually, I prefer Fusion... and so do a lot of others around here :eek:

OP, you should try the Trial Versions of both and make up your own mind
Most of it is personal preference... both do the job

Woof, Woof – Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
Definitely Fusion. Both have a trial version.

..and Fusion doesn't update every 6 months and want to charge you for a new version.
 
I've had better personal experience with parallels, and for what I use Windows for (I run GM's STC Server on it, its Windows only though its just an apache based java server app, too lazy to set it up in OSX) its more convenient. I can use their new tiny-windowed mode and ignore it while windows sits behind ichat, and their coherence mode works excellent if I want to run something like Starplayr for Windows to listen to XM-Sirius.

I used VMware a while back, and it fragged out when windows crashed. The primary virtual machine was destroyed in a crash and the other one - boot camp - was unusable in VMware or to boot to normally. Parallels was always smooth sailing though.
 
Sky Blue said:
Definitely Fusion. Both have a trial version.

..and Fusion doesn't update every 6 months and want to charge you for a new version.
Click to expand...

Actually, it's been over a year since Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac released, and the build updates for that were all free, as will be 4.0's build updates.
 
I used the Parallels trial for a bit then went and bought it. I think it works great for the few Win apps I use like Quickbooks , Sound Forge, and DVD Profiler
 
and why not just use CrossOver to run your windows apps again?
really no point in creating an entire virtual machine just to run a few apps.
 
jfg22557 said:
and why not just use CrossOver to run your windows apps again?
really no point in creating an entire virtual machine just to run a few apps.
Click to expand...
The problem with CrossOver, is that it had many compatibility limits.

For example, Microsoft Office 2003 & 2007 are at the Bronze level.

The Bronze Medal
The bronze is awarded to applications that install and run, and that can accomplish some portion of their fundamental mission. However, bronze applications generally have enough bugs that we recommend that our customers not depend on their functionality.

The most important aspect of a bronze application is that CodeWeavers makes a firm commitment to bring all bronze applications to the silver level in future releases of CrossOver.
Click to expand...
IMHO, CrossOver is a waste of time because of so many compatibility issues. If you want to run Windows apps, then Parallels or VMware provide a much better solution.

I use both Parallels and VMware. Both are good. Both have good points and bad points. To the OP, suggest that you try out both then decide.
 
jfg22557 said:
and why not just use CrossOver to run your windows apps again?
really no point in creating an entire virtual machine just to run a few apps.
Click to expand...
because Im very happy with Parallels and thats a good enough point for me .
plus im sure I will be adding more Win apps in the future at some point...
 
cleetusvandamm said:
because Im very happy with Parallels and thats a good enough point for me.
Click to expand...
Good point.

Once you get comfortable and get to know your way around with WMware or Parallels, it's nice to stick with one.

cleetusvandamm said:
plus im sure I will be adding more Win apps in the future at some point...
Click to expand...
Likewise.

CrossOver is so limited as a solution. They are slow to update to support new or updated programs. Plus, they are not even close to supporting mainstream apps like Office 2003 and 2007 so why bother with them.

IMHO, using Parallels or VMware is a much better solution than CrossOver.
 
Sky Blue said:
Definitely Fusion. Both have a trial version.

..and Fusion doesn't update every 6 months and want to charge you for a new version.
Click to expand...
I love that. I bought Fusion before it came out and haven't paid for an update since, and they've added some pretty major new features (even though they're version is only 2.0)

I personally went with VMWare because they're #1 in the overall VM market. The datacenter where I work has at least 200 production servers running on VMWare enterprise products and they've been rock-solid.
 
aristobrat said:
I love that. I bought Fusion before it came out and haven't paid for an update since, and they've added some pretty major new features (even though they're version is only 2.0)

I personally went with VMWare because they're #1 in the overall VM market. The datacenter where I work has at least 200 production servers running on VMWare enterprise products and they've been rock-solid.
Click to expand...

Glad you like the products! Don't forget ESXi is free to download and runs on major vendor hardware in 32MB!
 
Trip.Tucker said:
Glad you like the products! Don't forget ESXi is free to download and runs on major vendor hardware in 32MB!
Click to expand...
I think we're using 8 ESX servers here for production. We use the ESXi in our labs to play around with, though. :)

The VMWare stuff is slick as snot, especially the vmotion stuff. Being able to move a VM being used by users from one ESX server to another, and the users don't notice anything, ... that just boggles my mind! :eek:
 
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