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other

macrumors 6502
Aug 18, 2005
312
0
How does VirtualBox compare to these commercial alternatives? It doesn't have "coherency mode" and whatever it's called in VMWare, but besides that?
 

r-sparks

macrumors 6502
Dec 1, 2006
255
0
England
Wait if you're thinking of buying

If you're thinking of buying Fusion, wait until some more people have posted their reports of the 1.0 release. In fact, you might want to wait until the 1.1 release.

I've been using the RC1 for a few weeks and while it's stable and hasn't crashed, the coherence/Unity mode isn't bug free. Additionally, there are often a few moments of lockup (when quitting Fusion, for example; new programs can't be launched for around 20 seconds even though Fusion no longer appears to be running). This is on both a 2GB MacBook and a 2GB iMac C2D.

I've reported these bugs but was brushed aside, with the support staff saying they're unique to my systems. From what I read, the 1.0 release only fixes a handful of "major" bugs to do with crashes, and applies some new artwork.

Also, if you buy in the UK, be aware that you'll be taxed for VAT but you won't be told about this additional charge UNTIL AFTER you've clicked to place the order. I complained about this, which is illegal in my country, but they never replied to me.
 

r-sparks

macrumors 6502
Dec 1, 2006
255
0
England
How does VirtualBox compare to these commercial alternatives? It doesn't have "coherency mode" and whatever it's called in VMWare, but besides that?

I've never used VirtualBox but I can say that the Unity (coherence) mode of Fusion is pretty impressive. Program windows from the Windows virtual machines really do appear as program windows on OS X, complete with Dock buttons (although this is a little buggy in RC1 of Fusion and they stick around after the program has quit). Note that only Windows apps have Unity. Linux or Solaris doesn't.

That said, it's not perfect. The windows are laggy/glitchy when dragged around. This might just be issues with the RC1 release, however.

I use Unity mode to run DRM crapware such as the BBC's iPlayer. I can run WMP11 in a window on the desktop, while browsing or using other OS X apps.
 

MacDonaldsd

macrumors 65816
Sep 8, 2005
1,005
0
London , UK
Also, if you buy in the UK, be aware that you'll be taxed for VAT but you won't be told about this additional charge UNTIL AFTER you've clicked to place the order. I complained about this, which is illegal in my country, but they never replied to me.

That did irritate me, there was zero indication of it and 17.5% isn't just an extra few pennies.
 

eric_n_dfw

macrumors 68000
Jan 2, 2002
1,517
59
DFW, TX, USA
Missed the pre-order deal

Damn! I was going to buy it on the 50% off pre-order deal and didn't realize it was ending so fast. :mad:

Oh well.
 

stormdrums

macrumors newbie
Jun 13, 2007
12
0
munich
How does VirtualBox compare to these commercial alternatives? It doesn't have "coherency mode" and whatever it's called in VMWare, but besides that?
virtualbox is a good choice if you only have tu run windows apps once a week on your mac or if you do not have enough money to buy parallels or fusion.
in my opinion parallels user interface is better because of the smartselect feature and coherence, which works pretty well. vmware fusion has unity ("same" as coherence) but fusion didn't work very well in my tests.
as far as i know parallels allows to use less than 2 gigs of ram for all virtual machines and you can only assign one processing core to a virtual machine.
as i bought a quadcore mac pro with 8 gigs of ram, i'll be happy if fusion becomes stable, because it could use more ressources to do work faster.
 

maestrokev

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 23, 2007
875
8
Canada
Well-timed to coincide with the Apple August 7th announcement.

What Apple needs is more development in virtualization software. As a recent Mac switcher myself the only thing stopping me from selling off my Windows boxes and buying more Macs is the lack of stable virtualization software. Boot Camp is nice but I don't want to reboot. Parallels ... well, just read their support forums.
 

other

macrumors 6502
Aug 18, 2005
312
0
virtualbox is a good choice if you only have tu run windows apps once a week on your mac or if you do not have enough money to buy parallels or fusion.

Is that simply because of cohesion/unity, or is there something else?

I am kind of interested in the DirectX 8.1 support. I wonder if I could use Project 64 in a virtual machine. Has anybody tried?
 

Kelmon

macrumors 6502a
Mar 28, 2005
733
0
United Kingdom
My experience with Parallels has been pretty good so I'm looking to see some major reasons for switching to Fusion before trying it out. I've not installed the latest version of Parallels since I'm not prepared to try beta software for production data but v3 works fine for me at the moment, although there are a few niggles.

At the least I'd like to know what the performance difference is between them on a C2D MacBook Pro.
 

Arnaud

macrumors 6502
May 24, 2005
430
0
The Moon
Already a beta ?

If I understand correctly, Parallels is already working on Desktop 4.0, is that what the mentioned "beta" is about?

...

Is it me, or is time going really fast? Parallels only released Desktop 3.0 two months ago! (Or was it three?)

It is nice (and necessary) that companies work on updates and improvements, but soon we'll have to pay a new licence every 3 months for bug-correction and obvious improvements, going from Desktop 35 to Desktop 36.
I'm still on Desktop 2.0, I did not feel like paying yet again 6 months after my initial licence, for features which should have been included.
 

Rod76

macrumors newbie
May 4, 2006
22
0
I’ve used both VMware and Parallels and own both and I kicked Parallels to the curb as soon as VMware hit RC1. I‘ve since stopped having Kernel Panics and related network issues. VMware in RC1 does have some system slow downs at times, but remains stable and I’ve really come to prefer it. All it really needs to be perfect is some of Parallels VM management features and its the perfect product.
 

eenu

macrumors 65816
Aug 11, 2006
1,157
0
Manchester, UK
I think the story headline is mis leading and needs changing. This is not Parallels 3.0 Beta, this ended just over a week ago, i was a tester on that program and it was a private beta.

This is a public beta of Parallels 3.xx, so really the story headline needs changing to avoid confusion.
 

Arnaud

macrumors 6502
May 24, 2005
430
0
The Moon
I think the story headline is mis leading and needs changing. This is not Parallels 3.0 Beta, this ended just over a week ago, i was a tester on that program and it was a private beta.

This is a public beta of Parallels 3.xx, so really the story headline needs changing to avoid confusion.

ahAH, I understand better now, I obviously got confused, indeed... :p

Thanks for the explanations :)
No need anymore to be all wired against the software world, I can be zen again...
 
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