Parallels vs VMware Fusion

[StinkyPinky]

Virtual Box is pretty limited. Not a fan.

I use Parallels 6 and find it pretty good.

 

[vbuggy]

I keep both up to date generally, but there's just something about Parallels which leads me to using it less. Perhaps it's the familiarity with VMWare everywhere else (although Fusion really isn't necessarily a 'VMWare-consistent experience'), but when I do VM, I'm usually doing it in Fusion. YMMV.

 

[lokiju]

I've used all 3 of the latest releases and for me prefer Fusion 4.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Hey guys, if the only reason you want to hop over to Windows is to play older games (let's say Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, that sort of thing) then is there a 'best' solution for that? I'm not so worried about flashy but just want something that's pretty straight forward and easy to use.

 

[sourceninja]

I've played Bauldur's gate though vmware fusion. It worked pretty well.

 

[TheStu]

Hey guys, if the only reason you want to hop over to Windows is to play older games (let's say Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, that sort of thing) then is there a 'best' solution for that? I'm not so worried about flashy but just want something that's pretty straight forward and easy to use.

My friend keeps talking about some method that he is using where you bundle the installed program togeter with its own instance of WINE, and you can launch it as an application on your Mac. I cannot recall what the name of the process is though. He does that for Diablo II, Guild Wars, and a few other games as well.

 

[Tyranicus]

My friend keeps talking about some method that he is using where you bundle the installed program togeter with its own instance of WINE, and you can launch it as an application on your Mac. I cannot recall what the name of the process is though. He does that for Diablo II, Guild Wars, and a few other games as well.

That would be Wineskin. It works really well for Baldur's Gate I and II and Icewind Dale I. Icewind Dale II is a little laggy. Not every game works well, but quite a lot of them do.

 

[alkemyst]

I work with a team of engineers and the only ones that like VMWare are the ones that run things totally isolated...you'd probably be better just dual booting in that case.

Most of us use Parallels 6 and Snow Leopard...some have jumped to Lion and Parallels 7.

We run converged so we can open up Visio and IE while still running Mac Apps. It's seamless and fast. Parallels also handles USB devices much much better. You can tell it which environment to use the device in if needed (like my usb to serial adapter I have set to always align with MacOSX).

It really depends how you want to run. Converged vs Windows Only/OSX only.

 

[bearxor]

That would be Wineskin. It works really well for Baldur's Gate I and II and Icewind Dale I. Icewind Dale II is a little laggy. Not every game works well, but quite a lot of them do.

Doesn't Crossover work the same way. They have 'Bottles' that are basically self-contained Wine machines.

 

[bearxor]

I work with a team of engineers and the only ones that like VMWare are the ones that run things totally isolated...you'd probably be better just dual booting in that case.

Have you used Fusion? Because...

Most of us use Parallels 6 and Snow Leopard...some have jumped to Lion and Parallels 7.

We run converged so we can open up Visio and IE while still running Mac Apps. It's seamless and fast.

Fusion can do that. In fact, I would make the argument that if seamless integration is what you're looking for, Fusion does it better.

Parallels also handles USB devices much much better. You can tell it which environment to use the device in if needed (like my usb to serial adapter I have set to always align with MacOSX).

Fusion can do that too.

 

[alkemyst]

Fusion has not played as well in our experience. Fusion is free for us and we have all tried it, many moved to parallels and things worked better ESP I'd you are changing USB devices a lot.

 

[Tyranicus]

Doesn't Crossover work the same way. They have 'Bottles' that are basically self-contained Wine machines.

Yes, but Wineskin actually makes standalone OS X applications, whereas CrossOver just sticks all the files in ~/Library/Application Support/CrossOver. You need to launch CrossOver to run any of the apps. Also, Wineskin is free, and CrossOver costs money.

 

[alkemyst]

http://arstechnica.com/apple/review...-desktop-7-and-vmware-fusion-4-reviewed.ars/6

I don't think most people that said they had experience with both products really did. Fusion IMHO was never good at covergence mode, now there is a review that shows this and other shortcomings.

I haven't upgraded to lion yet, when I get time I will and that will require going parallels 7. Most in our enterprise have gone that route and further gave our thinkpad guys reasons they wished they picked the MacBook pro laptop option.

 

[Tyranicus]

I don't think most people that said they had experience with both products really did. Fusion IMHO was never good at covergence mode, now there is a review that shows this and other shortcomings.

I use VMware with Unity (their name for convergence) every day without issues.

 

[alkemyst]

I use VMware with Unity (their name for convergence) every day without issues.

It works...but that's like saying one uses LINUX everyday and has no issues.

The article I linked shows pretty much a good pros/cons for each with Parallels being a much more polished and reliable platform.

It makes it clear I am not playing fanboi. In reality my company provides VM free, we have to PAY for Parallels. We are a VMware partner.