VMWare Fusion Beta

[akac]

Whatever dude. 2Ghz\2GB RAM\256MB Video\160GB HD and there is NOTHING instantaneous about Parallels at all. It takes anywhere from 1-2 minutes to resume a session and another 2+ minutes to suspend it. This is with multiple images, several OS X installs, and I know how to tweak Windows with the best of them.

Sounds like you're not talking about Parallels starting up, but a virtual machine either resuming or starting up from scratch. For me WinXP starts in about 15 seconds on a 2.16Ghz 2GB RAM or about 2 minutes if resuming. But that has NOTHING to do with Cocoa, QT, Carbon or what not. The difference between those frameworks in speed is in milliseconds and would have nothing to do with the above. Those would have everything to do with file writing to disk.

I can say that when Parallels has its VM Flags set to VM Cache as the primary caching logic, its disk speed is near native, but OS X apps slow down dramatically. Change that to Mac OS X primary caching logic and the VM's disk access slows down noticeably, but not horribly.

 

[akac]

I should add that this is the one reason I'm interested in VMWare - native disk speed. I can partition my disk to XP and Mac ala Bootcamp and have VMWare use the partition natively for disk access.

 

[Marx55]

I can say that when Parallels has its VM Flags set to VM Cache as the primary caching logic, its disk speed is near native, but OS X apps slow down dramatically. Change that to Mac OS X primary caching logic and the VM's disk access slows down noticeably, but not horribly.

How to do such changes? Thanks.

 

[Marx55]

VMWare is going to smoke Parallels when it comes out. I can’t wait. I'm still a little bit miffed though that no one has gotten native partition support so we can use the same partition while virtualizing or dual booting.

That native partion support to use virtualization or dual booting would be awesome, having the best of both worlds (Boot Camp & Virtualization). I look forward to it!

 

[MacVault]

That native partion support to use virtualization or dual booting would be awesome, having the best of both worlds (Boot Camp & Virtualization). I look forward to it!

YES! That would be sweeeeet!

 

[br0adband]

Whatever dude. 2Ghz\2GB RAM\256MB Video\160GB HD and there is NOTHING instantaneous about Parallels at all. It takes anywhere from 1-2 minutes to resume a session and another 2+ minutes to suspend it. This is with multiple images, several OS X installs, and I know how to tweak Windows with the best of them. Then there is the bug where it likes to freeze the entire system when you change locations. Not always but it’s a common enough thing that I have to stop the session to change locations or risk crashing my system.

If it's taking you two minutes to resume a session and two minutes plus to suspend it, on that machine you mentioned the specs of, something is frickin' wrong with that machine.

2.16 Core 2 Duo 20" iMac here, 2GB, stock 250GB drive, Parallels does the following:

- it cold starts in 4 seconds
- it boots my XP VM (512MB of RAM/8GB virtual hard disk) to the Desktop in 9
- it suspended that same XP VM in 14
- it restored that same XP VM in 11

And that's with Crossover for Mac running several Windows apps in the background too, so some of my resources are already drained when I fired up Parallels and the VM. Memory usage at the moment for the entire machine is sitting at 1154MB of 2048MB, 69 tasks, 330 threads as measured by MenuMeters.

So, give that box a tuneup or whatever, because you're certainly not getting the performance from Parallels that you should be getting. Also, check your VT-x flags under Parallels to make sure it's functioning properly.

btw, this is Parallels build 1970, the latest and greatest, and I've had nothing but positive usage of Parallels since I bought it off the shelf in an Apple Store along with this iMac a month ago. 3 upgrades so far, no issues at all.

bb

 

[strange days]

...guys, I was wondering...

Does BOOT CAMP already support DUAL-CORE under XP ?

Sorry for the ignorance, just bought me a new Macbook and going to install either PARALLELS or BOOT CAMP ( waiting for VMWARE... )

Thanks for feedback !=)

 

[myamid]

...guys, I was wondering...

Does BOOT CAMP already support DUAL-CORE under XP ?

Sorry for the ignorance, just bought me a new Macbook and going to install either PARALLELS or BOOT CAMP ( waiting for VMWARE... )

Thanks for feedback !=)

Yes, BootCamp uses the hardware natively, so that means dual-core support. As to whether you should use bootcamp or Parallels... Well I guess that ultimatly depends on what you need windows for... 3D games or REALLY CPU untensive App? Go for bootcamp. Otherwise, parallels does the trick nicely and doesn't require you to reboot (a BIG bonus for me...)

 

[myamid]

If it's taking you two minutes to resume a session and two minutes plus to suspend it, on that machine you mentioned the specs of, something is frickin' wrong with that machine.

2.16 Core 2 Duo 20" iMac here, 2GB, stock 250GB drive, Parallels does the following:

- it cold starts in 4 seconds
- it boots my XP VM (512MB of RAM/8GB virtual hard disk) to the Desktop in 9
- it suspended that same XP VM in 14
- it restored that same XP VM in 11

And that's with Crossover for Mac running several Windows apps in the background too, so some of my resources are already drained when I fired up Parallels and the VM. Memory usage at the moment for the entire machine is sitting at 1154MB of 2048MB, 69 tasks, 330 threads as measured by MenuMeters.

So, give that box a tuneup or whatever, because you're certainly not getting the performance from Parallels that you should be getting. Also, check your VT-x flags under Parallels to make sure it's functioning properly.

btw, this is Parallels build 1970, the latest and greatest, and I've had nothing but positive usage of Parallels since I bought it off the shelf in an Apple Store along with this iMac a month ago. 3 upgrades so far, no issues at all.

bb

I get similar performance on my slighly slower iMac.... And my VM images are on a less than ideal external FW drive!!! I'll second the opinion that if your system is significatly slower than this with Parallels, there's something VERY wrong with your Mac...

 

[DJRizzo]

Will it support playing graphic intensive Windows games? That's the only think Parallels doesn't do for me.
boxlight

In general you won't want to use any kind of virtualization solution for something processor & video intense like this. You'll want to just use boot camp.

 

[DJRizzo]

Questions

I just got an email from VMware about beta testing VMware for Mac. Can't seem to download the stuff because their store is having errors. Hopefully once I get to download it, I can give you guys some results.

I'm on a PPC but plan to go MacTel next year when Adobe releases Universal versions of Creative Suite. I have some questions about VMware & Parallels if you don't mind me adding it to the thread:

1. Do they require Windows partitions, and if so how much disk space is needed?

2. If a partition is needed, can you run the partition on an external drive so as to free up space on your internal? (I'll be using a MacBook Pro so that's why I ask).

3. Can anyone tell me anything about syncing a Palm device with Parallels or VMware? In particular I'm wondering how easily (if at all) I could sync my Treo with Windows apps as well as OS X apps. This would be huge to me.

thx.

 

[hob]

A little on the slow side...

Maybe I need more RAM, but I was dissapointed to be reminded of Virtual PC, the way it totally slows the rest of my Mac down...

[click for bigger image]

 

[kainjow]

Well. I have to say Bravo! VMWare!!!!
It use SOOOOOOO little amount of memory compare to Parallels (4xxMB vs 2.xxGB), so there is better system performance. I cannot wait to test it on my Macbook but the different on my Mac Pro was HUGE!!

I agree. VMware is already very good for a private beta (don't ask me how I got it ). Very fast already, and the app itself starts up about 5x faster than Parallels. And it uses a Cocoa native interface yay!

 

[YoNeX]

I'm on a PPC but plan to go MacTel next year when Adobe releases Universal versions of Creative Suite. I have some questions about VMware & Parallels if you don't mind me adding it to the thread:

1. Do they require Windows partitions, and if so how much disk space is needed?

2. If a partition is needed, can you run the partition on an external drive so as to free up space on your internal? (I'll be using a MacBook Pro so that's why I ask).

3. Can anyone tell me anything about syncing a Palm device with Parallels or VMware? In particular I'm wondering how easily (if at all) I could sync my Treo with Windows apps as well as OS X apps. This would be huge to me.

thx.

1. Currently VMware fusion only allows you to do to create a VMware image. This acts as like a virtual hard drive, so you would then have to partition accordingly. There is a network install, but VMware has not enabled the feature (to my knowledge).

2. See above

3. You should be able to sync with it, because like Parallels and VMware it allows you to connect it to the XP just by checking a tab to tell it to connect to it. So no issues here.

The main feature it is lacking for me right now is the shared folder. This would be very uself for some of the stuff that I would be doing.

 

[iHateWindows]

Maybe I need more RAM, but I was dissapointed to be reminded of Virtual PC, the way it totally slows the rest of my Mac down...

[click for bigger image]

Take into consideration that you're running a beta OS on beta software. Both Fusion and Vista will get faster and more bug-free over time.

 

[ChrisA]

I use "VMWare Server" It runs on both Windows and Linux. Here is how it works: First I bring up a console window. THen I "connect" to a physical machine. Either the one I'm using or some other one on the network. Then I can "Power On" a Virtual machine. On power on I see the BIOS counting up memory and then booting off the boot device and finally it loads an OS. What this means, it that you have a set on physical machines and a set of virtual machines and the virtual machines can run on any of the physical machines and can eve be moved around. And all the displays are sent back to you workstation where you can tab between them. Another neat feature is the abilty to "snapshot" a VM. You ckick on "snapshoot" before you do something you might regret say you want to install some spyware thing just to see what it does. OK now you've seen it so you click "restore" and the computer is put back into the state of when it was snapshoted.

VMWare pioneered this whole ideal and has by for the best products. And so of them are free. If you have a Windows or Linux system go get VMware Server right now.

 

[YoNeX]

I used VMware workstation for Windows, that thing was awesome. Let me test so much stuff, and the features are so useful. That thing was slow, but it worked just fine. Now, if they released something like that for Mac, Parallels will have some stiff competition. But Parallels should still beat VMware in the price point, VMware isn't that cheap after all.

 

[ChrisA]

Maybe I need more RAM, but I was dissapointed to be reminded of Virtual PC, the way it totally slows the rest of my Mac down...

If you are going to run two operating systems then your computer needs to have the resources for the sum of the two systems. So if Mac OSX needs 1GB to run well and so does Windows XP then you need 2GB of ram. Same for the CPU. If a 2Ghz is needed for Windows and a 2Ghz chip for MacOS then you need either a 4Ghz chip or a two core 2Ghz chip. You don't get anything for free. If you want to run two computers you need twice the hardware.

I'll bet this runs great on a Mac Pro

 

[Transeau]

So far, I can tell you it runs MUCH better than Paralles on my Mac Pro.

 

[ChrisA]

I'm on a PPC but plan to go MacTel next year when Adobe releases Universal versions of Creative Suite. I have some questions about VMware & Parallels if you don't mind me adding it to the thread:

1. Do they require Windows partitions, and if so how much disk space is needed?

2. If a partition is needed, can you run the partition on an external drive so as to free up space on your internal? (I'll be using a MacBook Pro so that's why I ask).

3. Can anyone tell me anything about syncing a Palm device with Parallels or VMware? In particular I'm wondering how easily (if at all) I could sync my Treo with Windows apps as well as OS X apps. This would be huge to me.

thx.

1) Not a partition. The virtual Windows disk lives inside a file on the mac. If your Windows C: drive was 18GB stored on it the Mac OSX file will be 18GB.

OK with the current VMware produts you can use a real Windows partition if you want. Same with the Windws CD drive. You can map them to the real CD drive or to a disk image file. The default is to map the CD to the real CD and the C: disk to a disk image file (but you could map C: to a real disk if you want)


2) The file holding the virtual disk can be anyplace, even on a network drive but speed is an issue

 

[SiliconAddict]

If it's taking you two minutes to resume a session and two minutes plus to suspend it, on that machine you mentioned the specs of, something is frickin' wrong with that machine.

2.16 Core 2 Duo 20" iMac here, 2GB, stock 250GB drive, Parallels does the following:

- it cold starts in 4 seconds
- it boots my XP VM (512MB of RAM/8GB virtual hard disk) to the Desktop in 9
- it suspended that same XP VM in 14
- it restored that same XP VM in 11

And that's with Crossover for Mac running several Windows apps in the background too, so some of my resources are already drained when I fired up Parallels and the VM. Memory usage at the moment for the entire machine is sitting at 1154MB of 2048MB, 69 tasks, 330 threads as measured by MenuMeters.

So, give that box a tuneup or whatever, because you're certainly not getting the performance from Parallels that you should be getting. Also, check your VT-x flags under Parallels to make sure it's functioning properly.

btw, this is Parallels build 1970, the latest and greatest, and I've had nothing but positive usage of Parallels since I bought it off the shelf in an Apple Store along with this iMac a month ago. 3 upgrades so far, no issues at all.

bb

I've reinstalled OS X twice in the last 9 months. The latest being about 3 weeks ago when I upgraded to a 160GB hard drive. There is nothing wrong with my computer. (OK there is something wrong with its sleeping mech but that has nothing to do with performance.)
Parallels just sucks. Also I’m willing to bet the more you use the disk image and Windows the more parallels slows down. I’ve got a 14GB disk image, a ton of apps loaded, along with being in it every day for 8+ hours, USB peripherals all over the place, network settings for home and work, firewall enabled along with antivirus software. (I can’t use Office 2003 with SAP in OS X.) I probably use it more extensively then most Mac users. The simple fact is the reason why I keep reinstalling the demo instead of outright buying it is because I’m waiting on VMWare’s solution. VMWare is THE industry’s Microsoft when it comes to virtualizing. Just without the whole evilness thing. I’ve used Parallels extensively. I’m not impressed.

 

[YoNeX]

I've reinstalled OS X twice in the last 9 months. The latest being about 3 weeks ago when I upgraded to a 160GB hard drive. There is nothing wrong with my computer. (OK there is something wrong with its sleeping mech but that has nothing to do with performance.)
Parallels just sucks. Also I’m willing to bet the more you use the disk image and Windows the more parallels slows down. I’ve got a 14GB disk image, a ton of apps loaded, along with being in it every day for 8+ hours, USB peripherals all over the place, network settings for home and work, firewall enabled along with antivirus software. (I can’t use Office 2003 with SAP in OS X.) I probably use it more extensively then most Mac users. The simple fact is the reason why I keep reinstalling the demo instead of outright buying it is because I’m waiting on VMWare’s solution. VMWare is THE industry’s Microsoft when it comes to virtualizing. Just without the whole evilness thing. I’ve used Parallels extensively. I’m not impressed.

Guess I wasn't alone when I thought Parallels is slow.

 

[shawnce]

Parallels just sucks.

Weird on my MacBook Pro and Mac Pro Parallels works great running WinXP Pro. I use it to do heavy development work and testing... it actually runs noticeably faster then my Dell desktop (P4 3GHz).

 

[dailo]

I get similar performance on my slighly slower iMac.... And my VM images are on a less than ideal external FW drive!!! I'll second the opinion that if your system is significatly slower than this with Parallels, there's something VERY wrong with your Mac...

Do you have any certain settings set? Because I have a 2.16 MBP with 2GB of memory and it takes like 40 seconds to suspend and resume. I'm not getting anywhere near the few seconds you guys are talking about.

 

[akac]

How to do such changes? Thanks.

Edit the VM. Go to VM Flags page and choose the cache policy.