mac: parallels or vmware fusion?

[Simp-Dawg]

which do you use and what do you like about them?  do you find you need to access both osx and windows at the same time or is boot camp sufficient for your needs?

just picked up a 13" macbook pro and am considering the options.  i can get parallels for only $40 through the university.

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

I've tried both and I liked VMware better.

I liked being able to boot into a Virtual Machine, or the Boot Camp Partition.

I haven't used the most recent version of Parallels. Maybe it has some new features.

I'm pretty sure you could try them out at the Apple Store. I would suspect they have them both installed on at least one machine since they sell both programs.

When do classes start? Have fun and good luck.

[hummat]

And depending on what you need Windows for, remember that Snow Leopard will have exchange support.  At work I use parallel's mainly just to run outlook and have access to the exchange contact info.  Hopefully in a few weeks (or maybe as soon at this time next week) I will not have to fire up the dark side EVER!

-j

[Sebastian]

I have read reviews stating that Parallels is about 10 to 15 percent faster that VMWare for most operations, but I haven't tested that myself. I am using VMWare because I got it for free with my MacBook. It always worked fine for me (mainly using it for CDWave under XP and a proprietary Linux VPN client I need to use for work).

[Simp-Dawg]

i went into the cu bookstore to see if i could grab office for mac instead of waiting for it to be shipped, and no dice, but i noticed that vmware also is available for $40 through the edu discount.  so either option is the same price...

classes start on monday

[blastroknow]

You should try them both out because they will both do the same thing each with their own quirks.  I tried the full demo time for both parallels and vmware fusion and went with the vmware because it fit my workflow better and handled my usb wacom tablet better than parallels.  I still use bootcamp, too depends on what I'm doing.  And these would be just some of the reasons I love my macbook 

[OFOTD]

And depending on what you need Windows for, remember that Snow Leopard will have exchange support.  At work I use parallel's mainly just to run outlook and have access to the exchange contact info.  Hopefully in a few weeks (or maybe as soon at this time next week) I will not have to fire up the dark side EVER!

Snow Leopard will only support Exchange 2007 and beyond.  The vast majority of business (especially large corporations) and universities still use Exchange 2003 or eariler.  Something to consider if Exchange support is a major issue.

[evilchris]

Parallels is superior to VMware, at this point.

http://www.infoworld.com/d/virtualization/windows-mac-parallels-vs-vmware-fusion-round-2-523
http://chris.pirillo.com/parallels-vs-vmware-fusion-no-contest/
http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.25/25.04/VMBenchmarks/index.html

[Simp-Dawg]

a guy at work just told me about virtual box, which is free.  anyone used it?

[evilchris]

^ you get what you pay for, IMO.

[if_then_else]

a guy at work just told me about virtual box, which is free.  anyone used it?

I'm using it on Linux but it's actually cross platform (Windows, Linux, MacOS, Solaris...).

It's on par with the consumer products of VMWare (Server or Workstation). In my opinion, it's quite fast and less bulky than its VMware counterparts.

At a company level, I'd rather choose VMWare ESX server (expensive) or Xen based virtualization.