Well I've been using Parallels and Fusion on and off from the beginning initially as my main work PC running Office 2003/2007, corporate apps, Adobe design apps and for the testing of apps like SketchUp and SolidWorks. Each version of each app gets better and in some cases overtakes the other one. So earlier this year Parallels was slightly faster at most tasks than Fusion see this review:
http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.25/25.04/VMBenchmarks/index.html That was with VMware Fusion 2.0.1. Fusion is now up to 2.0.5 so it's probably slightly faster than Parallels. In terms of features they are so similar. In the early versions Parallels interface was a bit nicer - kinda Tonka Toyified. Fusion has certainly caught up now though. Similarly VirtualBox is improving all the time, there was an update just the other week. Speaking of VirtualBox it is straightforward to use if nothing goes wrong. If it does you may have to do a bit of searching on the net or playing around to sort it out. I suppose this is where its downfall is. Parallels and VMware's support is pretty good - I've had to contact both and both have responded quickly. With VirtualBox being a free product you're on your own a little bit - but hey did I say it's free, and really impressive for a freebie. My colleagues set up VirtualBox on a complete novice to VMs iMac and he's really happy with it. Currently I'm running Parallels 4.0.3846 with Windows 7RC on Snow Leopard 10.6.1 and it's running really well. The only reason I'm using Parallels over Fusion is that it came as part of a MacUpdate Promo. Otherwise I would have gone for the Fusion offer this morning. I wouldn't consider gaming with these VMs however using Bootcamp on a MacPro is awesome... Hope this is helpful in some way - sorry for the lack of specifics I'm not in IT anymore. Regards, Chris. > From: Neil Houghton <n...@possumology.com> > Reply-To: WAMUG Mailing List <wamug@wamug.org.au> > Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:47:44 +0800 > To: WAMUG <wamug@wamug.org.au> > Subject: Re: VMWare Fusion $41 till 11.30am today > > > Hi Peter, > > Out of interest, did you use all three just to compare the different > applications - or do you use different VMs for different tasks. > > What, if any, would you rate as the particular pros/cons or points of > difference of the three approaches - other than the obvious cost advantage > of Sun's VirtualBox. > > I've only ever run Parallels 3.0 - just because it seemed to be the one > everyone recommended at the time that I purchased it - I had a lot of > trouble at the time upgrading my XP Pro VM (imported from Virtual PC) to SP2 > but once I got that sorted (thank you Peter Hinchcliffe!) it seems to do OK > so I didn't look any further. > > > However, I suppose that at some point (SL upgrade?) I will need to look at > upgrading from Parallels 3.0 - so I suppose that will be a good time to also > look at the alternatives. > > > > Cheers > > > > Neil > > -- > Neil R. Houghton > Albany, Western Australia > Tel: +61 8 9841 6063 > Email: n...@possumology.com > > > > on 21/9/09 10:12 AM, Christopher S at c...@iinet.net.au wrote: > >> >> Hi Peter >> >> I've used the current versions of Parallels and Fusion and Sun's VirtualBox >> (which is free) and they are all pretty good virtual machines. Unless you >> are talking the latest Windows games I would think any of the above would be >> fine for most apps. Games may run best in Fusion but BootCamp is probably >> the better option - that is of course debatable. >> >> There is a big caveat with all three and that is that you need to own a copy >> of Windows to install in the virtual machine. >> >> If it's only a couple of apps that you need like the ATO Tax App then I'd >> probably suggest Sun's VirtualBox. >> >> Regards, >> >> Chris. >> >> >> >>> From: Peter Curtis <pcur...@aapt.net.au> >>> Reply-To: WAMUG Mailing List <wamug@wamug.org.au> >>> Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:57:06 +0800 >>> To: WAMUG Mailing List <wamug@wamug.org.au> >>> Subject: Re: VMWare Fusion $41 till 11.30am today >>> >>> Hi >>> I need to run windoze for a couple of applications that can't be run >>> on a Mac and currently use a small windows laptop. Now that I've >>> bought a intel Mac I intend to run windoze on it but haven't got >>> around to choosing which program to use. This email suggests now might >>> be the time to make up my mind. The question is: Is VMWare Fusion a >>> reasonable program to use for someone who wants to run a couple of >>> windoze programs on their Mac? or should I be more careful in choosing >>> what program I use? >>> Thanks in anticipation. >>> Regards >>> Peter >>> On 21/09/2009, at 9:38 AM, Christopher S wrote: >>>> >>>> Hi Guys, >>>> >>>> Just a heads up Vmware Fusion 2.0.5 is US$34.95 till 11.30AM Monday 21 >>>> September at this site: http://www.mupromo.com/deal/960/4438/vmware-fusion >>>> this is quite a saving if you¹re in the market for Fusion/Parallels. >>>> > > > > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > Unsubscribe - <mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au> > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au>
