Comments on: VMWare Fusion vs. Parallels

By: Neelesh

Neelesh — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:15:38 +0000

I used Parallels on my MacBook and have a couple of VMs running, 1 with Win XP and the other with Oracle Enterprise Linux.

There is one problem though.
in Win XP VM, I use Citrix Access Gateway to VPN into my client site. The VPN connects, but I lose my internet connectivity including connecting to the client’s intranet sites !! where as everything works on a Win XP which is not a VM.

I am going to download Fusion and see if this is a problem.

Has anyone encountered this ?

By: arcu

arcu — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:22:09 +0000

One nice feature from Mac is that you can make a picture of a part of the screen, using shift command 4.

Well, I was surprised that you can use these commands with Parallels from the Windows screen. The only thing: once captured, you have to “refresh” the desktop for the picture to appear like a icon… I love Parallels, ’cause It is surprisingly solid for general pourpuses, MS Office, iExplorer, real data streaming, and audio video editing (SoundForge Vegas). Only sometimes needs to restart when too many applications and files have been opened. But this happen also in regular Windows.

By: JohnS

JohnS — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:01:08 +0000

I am a recovering Windows user! (16 years). Some Client server experience. That has been suffering from PTS -Post traumatic MS-syndrome until I switched to Leopard this past April. Am having a ball!

Just would like to know the performance distinctions between Parallels vs VMF! Am a user not a programmer or a gamer. I simply have 2 ASP subscriptions that require Explorer I must use. And want somthing fast and effective.

BTW- I enjoy SUN Open office very much! Can’t beat the price or compatibility.

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:38:41 +0000

Uh “nice review,” but you’re forgetting ALL the important features. Coherence and unity are probably the biggest features of interest, as there are programs that you just can’t get in a Mac…. How well does Unity/Coherence integrate with Mac OSX? Is it fast? sluggish? How does it look? Is it prone to screen artifacts? How is the drag/drop support? Clipboard support? File system management/compatibility? Was network bridging/NAT well thought out, or was it clumsy or defunct? How are each of the tool packages?

How about Graphics acceleration? The real problem with running virtualized environments has been sluggish/defunct graphics when rendered on the host. How does each software package measure up? Do either of the packages support hardware virtualization and, if so, did you get it working?

Are you really writing an honest review without using ANY benchmark software? I would go back to the drawing board with this post… tell us ANYTHING that’s important instead of “Fusion’s non-standard start menu iz teh k00l!”

By: Leto_Parallels

Leto_Parallels — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:08:27 +0000

Hi David,
I was just re-reading your article here and I had a thought which you might be keen on hearing about. Shoot me an e-mail at Leto@Parallels.com if you get a chance. Thanks!

By: VM Ware vs Virtual PC vs Parallels, the Battle for Desktop Virtualization Dominance | Virtualization Strategies

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:06:49 +0000

[...] David Starr, who admit tingly is falling back in love with his Mac take an objective look at all three desktop virtualization packages and seems to favor the solution from [...]

By: font9a

font9a — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:19:30 +0000

I’d really like to see a performance and benchmark test of the apps we use between both OSes all the time: All the main MS Office Apps (Excel, Word, PowerPoint); and all the main Adobe apps (Photoshop CS3; Illustrator 3, InDesign 3, Flash 3, Dreamweaver 3 –> and what would be really great is to benchmark the CS4 versions first.).

As a pretty new Mac-Exclusive user (used windows/linux/max for 15 years) I’d like to see an OS that that can stand on its own with all the deadfall in the way.

I’d love to see the startup speed of Vista apps on the MacOS X 10.5.5 side ….. 100 seconds seems like my hard earned cash to apple has been converted to hard core advertising; whilst Windows at least has ReadyBoost and SuperFetch in full action (note to the unitiated: it’s freaking fast boot up times for applications here. Mac needs to CATCH UP.)

With all the options of SSDs and 72Kk HDDs and etc, it’s especially easy to get caught up in the fray.

Here’s to hoping this column will provide some lab results on modern Intel Mac Mac vs. Dell/Lenovo hardware.

Cheers, font9a

By: Kyle Newton

Kyle Newton — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:59:41 +0000

Guy’s i’ve been reading up on this for a long time, there are so many mixed opinions. Anyway, I invite you to share your opinion , I created a VMWare Fusion post on the RatingHQ.com site we own, feel free to add your opinion to help others make a decision !

http://ratinghq.com/3-502/.mhtml

Thanks !

By: nick

nick — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:46:19 +0000

I sell refurbished macs on ebay preloaded with Parallels and windows XP / Vista.
The ease of backing up your virtual hard drive is a joke!
You can simply copy the folder, and put it back on your computer if anything ever happens .
Its very simple to use.
I will be honest, Ive never used VM ware fusion, because I never had the need to. I tried parallels first, and its the one that Works for me, so I never needed to search again.
The only drawback as one poster said, is 3d video acceleration for gaming, ect.
No way around this in a VM at this time.
Parallels did do a major improvement from ver 2 to 3, before you couldn’t even use a good screen saver. Now you can play quake 3 arena! So improvements are on the frontier.

By: asdf

asdf — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:22:51 +0000

most of these comments and reviews are pretty worthless. at minimum, start a full system virus scan in xp, jump back to osx, import 10,000 mp3s, jump back to windows, burn a cd, then go back to osx and launch a web browsing session.

this should all run at the same time.

one will cave, the other will hang on tight.

hint: the one with the pretty face….well shall we say…it’s only skin deep. “simple and clean” lol, as one previous comment put it…is akin to the wizard of oz, what you don’t see behind the curtain is what really matters.

bah. i decree all your geek cards summarily destroyed.