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Partly depends on what you need to run in both terms of operating system as well as applications. I like VirtualBox simply because it's free. I haven't really compared it with the others.
 
Go with VMware Fusion. The latest version works well with 32-bit Snow Leopard and will run Windows 7 just fine.
 
Parallels or Fusion both work fantastic and speedy.

I Personally use Parallels more often on Snow Leopard with Windows Vista through Win 7
 
Vmware fusion. While free virtual box does not have the feature set or performance of fusion
 
VMware Fusion or Parallels.

Both have a free trial. Test them out and see which works best.
 
I've used all three products and they each boast different unique features. I'd have to say that VirtualBox is my favourite, it's FREE and really fast. Whilst the commercial products are far more feature rich I rarely found myself using the added features.

If you are looking for a fast virtual machine go with VirtualBox 🙂
 
I use VMWare Fusion, but I haven't tried Parallels so I don't know which is "better". VMWare Fusion works fine for me - no bugs or anything.
 
Try out Virtual box, it's free and setting up win 7 and try it out shouldn't take much time.

If you're not happy, then check out either VmWare or Parallels.

I'm using vmware, I simply bought that because I've used vmware before on win/linux hardware.
If it's better than parallels, I don't know, but vmware is working great with both win 7 and xp.

If you are only gonna run one or two win apps, I'd recommend making a stripped xp installation, like tiny xp. Because it will run alot faster and need way less memory.

I do atm have win7 on bootcamp (32 bit..) and a very light xp installation in vmware with only 3 apps. The whole installation uses less than 100 mb ram, and it runs very comfortable on 512mb ram dedicated to windows, I could perhaps lower it to 300ish, but idk 🙂
 
Having uses VMWare Fusion and Parallels, I gotta say VMWare was just better overall. It felt more stable, where Parallels had an annoying habit of quitting the GUI, but leaving the system running, but unable to be accessed. This was a few years ago, but still... I've just had better luck with VMWare.

never tried Sun's version. You say it's free? I'll try it then, next time I get my mac back 🙂
 
I use Parallels 🙂 It works great for me , I don't really like the UI though.. but it's stable😀 never had a problem with it running XP Professional
 
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