VMWare vs. Parallels

[ewinemiller]

forgive the question, I'm confused. what is the difference if u use a virtualizer vs. Boot Camp alone? What do they do or allow u to do that BC doesn't? then what is the point of BC?

I could use Boot Camp alone, but it would be slower.

My business is developing cross platform 3D plug-ins. I prefer to do most of my coding in Visual Studio in a virtual machine so I can immediately compile the same code in XCode and test both platforms at the same time. I also don't have to reboot to test a customer issue that comes in from either a Windows or Mac user.

On a personal level, I use iCal for my schedule, but MS Money for financial stuff. With virtualization, it all runs at the same time, no problems.

Basically I can use my favorite tools when I want to without reboots.

I still keep a bootcamp partition running because occasionally I play something that's not available on the Mac and there are a few things I use that just flat out run faster on Windows. When render time is an issue, I'll go to bootcamp and render there. This however is less and less as time goes on. Mostly these days I try to avoid it because of how flaky the Apple wireless keyboard and mouse behave under Vista.

 

[himansk]

forgive the question, I'm confused. what is the difference if u use a virtualizer vs. Boot Camp alone? What do they do or allow u to do that BC doesn't? then what is the point of BC?

virtual machine runs side by side to your mac osx apps, so you can do most of the windows based tasks without leaving the mac desktop. boot camp allows you to boot into windows, so that windows is the standalone OS running, this allows windows complete hardware access, which allows you to play games, etc which you might not be able to in virtualization software (they dont support full 3D acceleration). the performance of boot camped windows will always be better coz there wont be any overhead of the Mac OS running on the side. Those are the main advantages in brief.

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

For a great side by side feature comparison on the two latest versions of each, as of this writing (see 'Features'):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_VMware_Fusion_and_Parallels_Desktop

My .02 ...

I'm a Parallels users with virtualized XP Home on my iMac 20 with 4GB RAM. I'm one of those users who is 99% Mac oriented, i.e. almost all of my software is native Mac under OS X 10.5.2 (Leopard), but I telework on occasion and use Mobikey to access my PC at work running Vista. Mobikey requires a Windows environment, hence my decision to install Parallels and a simple Windows setup. The only software I installed was Parallel's Tools and a virus scanner and MSIE 7, since having that helps me with development testing and some web sites require native active-X support.

I would like to compliment sanfransurfer who earlier listed alot of the major features that I feel also make Parallels a wise choice in the long run.

I recommend VMware fusion for those who want to virtualize while playing games or other graphics software where DirectX 9.0 is supported (although without shading) for standard 3D rendering. But I'll be honest, the better choice in that situation is to simply bootcamp Windows for you elite gamers out there - virtualization is not perfected for needs of that specific type.

-jim

 

[vrod1234]

Virus' on a Mac

I have been following the discussion of which software to use in order to enable running Windows on a Mac with great interest. I have been a PC user for as far back as I can remember. All of my work on the computer is email, internet, Word , Excel, accounting and photo editing. Although, I miss the ability to run my accounting software on the Mac it will run everything else I need. I left windows because of all the security problems and went to a Mac because of all the hype about security and not having to have all of my anti virus and spyware software. Now to my question - By running Windows on my Mac wont I defeat the purpose of going to the Mac in the first place? Unless I am missing something I will need all the security software on my Mac that I have on my PC.
Any input will be greatly appreciated.

Arnie

 

[Neil321]

I have been following the discussion of which software to use in order to enable running Windows on a Mac with great interest. I have been a PC user for as far back as I can remember. All of my work on the computer is email, internet, Word , Excel, accounting and photo editing. Although, I miss the ability to run my accounting software on the Mac it will run everything else I need. I left windows because of all the security problems and went to a Mac because of all the hype about security and not having to have all of my anti virus and spyware software. Now to my question - By running Windows on my Mac wont I defeat the purpose of going to the Mac in the first place? Unless I am missing something I will need all the security software on my Mac that I have on my PC.
Any input will be greatly appreciated.

Arnie

As there are no known viruses that will affect your Mac ( maybe a couple of Trojans,but i'm sure you will know you have to give these permission to install ) alot of users myself included feel it is unnecessary to have a AV installed in OS X,the only reason why you may need it is if you want to scan mail before forwarding it onto your windows buddies. Here is a recommend free (ish) one,in the unlikely event a virus managed to migrate across from windows to OS X your Mac wouldn't understand it so therefor wont harm it. Your windows side of things as usual needs all the AV help it can get

 

[Julien]

I have a PC and about to get a Mac Pro. Do either one of these programs allow me to make a virtual copy of my existing PC copy to USB then install as one file on the Mac? I'm running Vista 64 and would love to avoid installing and reconfiguring all my programs.

 

[JoJoCal19]

I have a PC and about to get a Mac Pro. Do either one of these programs allow me to make a virtual copy of my existing PC copy to USB then install as one file on the Mac? I'm running Vista 64 and would love to avoid installing and reconfiguring all my programs.

While I dont know for sure the answer to your question as it relates to these programs, I do know that you can use the system migration tool in Windows to create an "image" of your current Windows environment, including all applications, settings and files. You can then go to any computer running the same version of Windows you made the "image" of and then load it back in using the system migration tool. So in theory, you should be able to load Vista 64 into a virtual machine that you create, then use that system migration tool to import the "imgage" you made previously.

 

[weathermachine]

parallels wins

In my opinion, it's parallels.
Here's why:

command+tab works in either osx or parallels environment and includes all programs open in parallels with your mac programs. vmware fusion could not do this.

alt+tab for windows works even when you are on the mac side of things and only includes the windows programs, so if you want to see what's open only in windows, alt+tab will show you. VM Fusion does not do this unless you are in vm environment only.

I work in property title and need to use a certain program that is designed for windows. For some reason, it would not work in vmware fusion, but would work in parallels. That's why I had to switch really. Don't know why one environment would have it and the other wouldn't.

Some things are trickier in parallels, mouse, jump drives, etc, but once you figure it out, you won't have a prob. with it again. VMware fusion, to it's credit, handled all the ancillary stuff like that very smoothly.