Parallels or VMWare?

rubyonrails-talk
1

I’m looking to get parallels or vmware for my imac. Wondering what ppls opinions are.

Besides web broswers I need to run some windows only stuff, and wondering about running MS Office

Opinions?

Thanx Daniel

2

You’re going to get mixed reaction to this, but I prefer VMWare for a couple of reasons:

  • VMWare’s codebase is known to be cleaner than Parallels’

  • VMWare doesn’t create extra network adapters. The extra network adapters Parallels creates gave me problems with certain applications and networking in Parallels didn’t seem to work very well

  • VMWare feels a lot faster to me, both when running Windows and Linux

  • VMWare’s Unity is implemented better than Parallels’ Coherence, i.e. Unity treats each Windows application as an individual entity (try to use Exposé with both to see what I mean), while Parallels just puts them all on one canvas with a transparent background

  • VMWare’s 3D support actually works, while I couldn’t get Parallels to work (or maybe it did, but not as well as VMWare’s)

  • Should I need support, VMWare’s should be better than Parallels’

I do know that some people have problems with VMWare, most comments I hear relate to:

  • Printers (network printers) not being picked up too well in some cases

  • Importing settings from a PC is easier in Parallels

  • Dual screen support in VMWare either doesn’t work or doesn’t work very well

I don’t need printing, importing or dual screen support, so it’s no problem for me really.

Best regards

Peter De Berdt

3

Hi, I really cannot comment on codebases of either company and I really don’t care because I don’t work for either company. At this time, VMWare has a product called VMWare Fusion 1.0 that’s currently in Beta targeted to the Mac Intel. On the other side of the fence, you have Paralles Desktop 3.0 for the Mac in Final Release. Here’s a good comparison between the two:

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/02/21/vmwarevsparallels/index.php

Next, please take a look at the demo videos and download a trial:

Paralles:

http://www.parallels.com/en/rc/screens&demos/

VMWare Fusion 1.0

http://www.vmware.com

At this time, Parallels is ahead of the game in regards to virtualization software on the Mac. However, we’ll see how VWMare counters with their experience in this field for the Mac. My recommendation would be to try them both.

Good luck,

-Conrad

4

Hi Daniel, please tell me that you’re going to use virtualization software for running more that MS Office. However, I see the need for it to test web applications against IE to be a much better reason. In short, I don’t see buying VM software to run applications that exist natively on my host OS as a wise decision. Nonetheless, please give them both a spin and I’m very impressed with Parallels Desktop 3.0 For Mac.

Just my 2 cents,

-Conrad

5

Hi Daniel, please tell me that you’re going to use virtualization software for running more that MS Office. However, I see the need for it to test web applications against IE to be a much better reason. In short, I don’t see buying VM software to run applications that exist natively on my host OS as a wise decision. Nonetheless, please give them both a spin and I’m very impressed with Parallels Desktop 3.0 For Mac.

Just my 2 cents,

-Conrad

Yes more than MS Office. I need to run Solid Works and IE from it.

Thanx for your comments. This is quite interesting so far.

-Daniel

6

This article dates back to February, VMWare has come out of beta last week and almost all disadvantages (especially those related to speed and drag-and-drop between host and guest OS) are not applicable to the release version of VMWare.

Best regards

Peter De Berdt

7

Hi Peter, thanks for the updated information because I purchased the pre-order last week.

-Conrad

8

Daniel N wrote:

I'm looking to get parallels or vmware for my imac.

Is that Intel based?

You should at least checkout VirtualBox ( http://www.virtualbox.org ) it is free and opensource and runs great on my Ubuntu box. They have a OSX version and a Windows version. It was a proprietary solution that went opensource a few months ago. I have been using VMWare for about six years on Windows, but since moving to Linux have found VirtualBox to be a better product on Linux than VMWare.

Cheers,

Anthony

9

Dunno… I have 10 licenses of MS Office 2003 that I get with my subscription to Microsoft’s Action Pack (great buy if you have to live in the windows world, although restrictions apply). I’d rather pay $70 for parallels than pay full-price for a Mac version of Office. :slight_smile:

10

But an Intel native version of MS Office doesn't yet exist for OS X..

Adam

11

Hi Adam, I’m using it now and it does exist for Mac OS X. Please visit you local Apple Store for details.

Peace,

-Conrad

12

Correction, it runs natively on PPC and in emulation mode on Intel without any problems and very fast.

-Conrad

13

My boss just deleted Office. He says the new iWork, especially Pages and Numbers, does everything he needs and is faster and much cleaner to use.

This is also his first Mac, after many years of Windows. It’s been amazing to see.

I see now I’m like double off-topic.

14

Peter De Berdt wrote:

- VMWare doesn't create extra network adapters. The extra network adapters Parallels creates gave me problems with certain applications and networking in Parallels didn't seem to work very well

You can configure Parallels to work without those extra network adapters.

15

That was when Parallels networking support became completely unreliable :slight_smile: It wasn’t such a pleasant experience for me on a brand new MacBook Pro, but maybe I was just unlucky.

Best regards

Peter De Berdt

16

Although Ive never used Fusion, my previous experiences with VMWare really didnt leave a good taste in my mouth. Parallels has been running fine for the most part. Only occasionally have issues with coherence mode, which I can live with out. Other than that. an occasional freeze of the VM when coming out of standby related to coherence. If windowed, runs fine.

HTH, Richard