Can VMware Fusion solve a problem involving LG 5K Ultrafine, Sierra, El Capitan and a software only runs in El Capitan
The Problem
I am a researcher and my job critically depends on Papers 3, a software for organizing and referencing research papers. Currently Papers 3 only works in El Capitan and not Sierra. Often I have 10 research papers opened on the screen and the details of the figures are hard to see. So I bought two LG 5K Ultrafine displays. Unfortunately the LG 5K only works in Sierra, but not in El Capitan. I need both Papers 3 and LG 5K to work at the same time. Made several trips to Apple Store and experts there suggested virtual machine might be the solution.
In Need of a Solution
Can VMware Fusion (or Parallels) solve the above problem? I am not a computer person;
If yes, how to set it up? An apple specialist had suggested that I should install Sierra and my document folder (which have 500GB data) as the host because the computer could then drive the LG 5K with full resolution and also should install El Capitan and Papers 3 as guest in the virtual machine. My question is in this setup will the guest virtual machine El Capitan have the same LG 5K resolution as the host Sierra? It appears that Fusion supports 5K display.
Other Questions
Is this the only setup that it will work or are there other setups that will work too?
I understand that Fusion can mirror or share folders between the host and the guest, thus there is no need to have two same 500GB documents folders, one for the host and one for the guest. Is this correct? If it is correct, it will make Time Machine backup of new data easier because there is only one documents folder in the entire Mac as the virtual machine does not have one. Time machine backup can be done by simply turning off the virtual machine.
I also have a 2014 MacBook Air and a 2012 Mac Mini, both with 256GB SSD. If VMware Fusion can indeed solve the above mentioned problem, can I run the above mentioned setup using Fusion in a bootable external 1TB SSD drive connected to one of them?
The Problem
I am a researcher and my job critically depends on Papers 3, a software for organizing and referencing research papers. Currently Papers 3 only works in El Capitan and not Sierra. Often I have 10 research papers opened on the screen and the details of the figures are hard to see. So I bought two LG 5K Ultrafine displays. Unfortunately the LG 5K only works in Sierra, but not in El Capitan. I need both Papers 3 and LG 5K to work at the same time. Made several trips to Apple Store and experts there suggested virtual machine might be the solution.
In Need of a Solution
Can VMware Fusion (or Parallels) solve the above problem? I am not a computer person;
If yes, how to set it up? An apple specialist had suggested that I should install Sierra and my document folder (which have 500GB data) as the host because the computer could then drive the LG 5K with full resolution and also should install El Capitan and Papers 3 as guest in the virtual machine. My question is in this setup will the guest virtual machine El Capitan have the same LG 5K resolution as the host Sierra? It appears that Fusion supports 5K display.
Other Questions
Is this the only setup that it will work or are there other setups that will work too?
I understand that Fusion can mirror or share folders between the host and the guest, thus there is no need to have two same 500GB documents folders, one for the host and one for the guest. Is this correct? If it is correct, it will make Time Machine backup of new data easier because there is only one documents folder in the entire Mac as the virtual machine does not have one. Time machine backup can be done by simply turning off the virtual machine.
I also have a 2014 MacBook Air and a 2012 Mac Mini, both with 256GB SSD. If VMware Fusion can indeed solve the above mentioned problem, can I run the above mentioned setup using Fusion in a bootable external 1TB SSD drive connected to one of them?
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