Parallels vs Fusion

acosmichippo · 04-12-2008, 05:42 PM

i tried out Parallels this week, which worked OK. it was a little finicky, so i decided to give VMware a shot today, and so far i like it much better, although i only just installed it.

what are your esperiences?

Eragon · 04-12-2008, 06:16 PM

Originally Posted by acosmichippo

i tried out Parallels this week, which worked OK. it was a little finicky, so i decided to give VMware a shot today, and so far i like it much better, although i only just installed it.

what are your esperiences?

I use Parallels and never tried Fusion. Pretty satisfied with Parallels, especially since they have a fairly active support forum, opportunities for Beta testing new builds. Updates are provided at no additional charge as long as the main version of the software doesn't change (e.g., ver. 3.x.x; all .x.x are free updates).

Here are some links to a review that was done:

http://www.macrumors.com/2007/12/19/...re-benchmarks/

http://www.mactech.com/articles/mact...tionBenchmark/

x999x · 04-13-2008, 12:06 AM

I use VMware Fusion, I find its not as robust with DirectX gaming as Parallels, but surpasses Parallels everywhere else.

If I really need DirectX that bad I'll just hop into bootcamp.

acosmichippo · 04-13-2008, 12:08 AM

i also just set up an Ubuntu virtual machine... haven't gotten 3D effects working... looks like it's not quite possible.

oh well, still cool.

patrickj · 04-13-2008, 12:49 AM

I haven't had a chance to try Parallels yet, will soon. Like Fusion a lot though ...

geordisjd · 04-13-2008, 09:38 AM

Originally Posted by acosmichippo

i tried out Parallels this week, which worked OK. it was a little finicky, so i decided to give VMware a shot today, and so far i like it much better, although i only just installed it.

what are your esperiences?

I use Parallels and it's been flawless since I got rid of my viruses. I tried VMware too, imported my VM from Parallels with success (at least that's the message I got), but the problem is that winXP will launch and quit in the same breath. So, I'm 100% Parallels again.

Napoleon_PhoneApart · 04-13-2008, 10:06 AM

How does Boot Camp compare to these two programs?

Eragon · 04-13-2008, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by Napoleon_PhoneApart

Hoe does Boot Camp compare to these two programs?

Boot camp runs natively on the Mac, as opposed to a virtual machine. Although there are some features you can simulate in a virtual machine, Parallels can't support the latest Direct X graphics. For gamers, Boot Camp is the only way to go.

I stayed away from Boot Camp because I would not be able to access my Windows files from the OS X side. With Parallels, I have full access to the files on my Windows partition.

acosmichippo · 04-13-2008, 11:55 AM

Originally Posted by Eragon

I stayed away from Boot Camp because I would not be able to access my Windows files from the OS X side. With Parallels, I have full access to the files on my Windows partition.

if you format the bootcamp partition as FAT32, you can read/write from OSX.

Ramesh · 04-13-2008, 12:57 PM

I just switched from Parallels to VMware. I like Fusion much better. It seems to run a lot smoother too.