Parallels or VMware Fusion?

[eric2006]

VMWare feels snappier to me, but Parallels has some nice, polished features. Installing XP with Parallels was a breeze.

[chevy]

In French only, but quite interesting for everybody:

http://www.mac4ever.com/articles/log...ware_le_match/

[zynizen]

I've been debating this topic for quite some time..

I need to point out a very important topic not reaaally mentioned here about these two apps. First off, I have both installed on my Macbook Pro and new 20" iMac.

I day trade currencies/fx, and need reliable uptime for my windows installation right, however, I've experienced mixed issues with this.

VMWare: runs very smoothly without a doubt, even in UNITY mode, but networking craps out ALL the time, making it unreliable for me as a trader. I've configured it to bridge/nat/shared, everything, and still intermitten disconnects. I find the virtualization and memory/cpu allocation is amazing, very lightweight, however very weak on the networking side.

Parallels: not as great of coherence mode, doing certain functions in my trading software freezes, locks up everytime, but if i switch to regular os windowed mode, it works, I'm betting its a video/java issue with the coherence part of the software, its a real nuisance, BUT on the upside, the networking/drivers/connectivity is A+. Now the only thing different is on my macbook pro im using a slightly older version of parallels, haven't updated to 3.0 5160 yet, but on the iMac i Have, and haven't fully tested this crash issue I have. There are quite a few updates that would apply to my macbook version so, its just a matter of updating and seeing if it still crashes in coherence.

I will tomorrow evening, and will post results here.

I've been running both Parallels and VMware since they both came out, and they both have great features, however I think with the future integration of Intel and Parallels now a team, they will still be the better/more reliable choice, especially because they are focusing on VM solutions integrating with their chips.

stay tuned for results. (if anyones interested)

[bbloke]

I've recently purchased VMWare Fusion and use it with Windows XP. I've been very impressed by the setup so far, I think it works very well. Perhaps I'll post about it at a later time.

For now, zynizen, have you tried the Fusion 1.1 Beta? I was wondering if it was any better for the issues you describe.

[BikerRob]

I'm hoping someone else has encountered this problem, since I can't find a solution anywhere:

I used BootCamp to set up XP on my MacBook. I then installed Fusion and use it to go into XP when needed.

However, now, when I first start my computer, I get no power to my USB or Firewire ports. If I plug a device into the USB, it tells me that there isn't enough power to charge it. If I plug a camera into my Firewire, it doesn't do anything.

To make them work, I first have to open Fusion, boot up XP. Plug in the device while in XP. Then shut down Fusion.
ONLY after doing all this can I then use the ports on OSX.

I was so fed up with it that I uninstalled the boot camp partition, only to discover that my ports no longer worked at all in OSX. The only way to get them functioning again was to do another full install of Boot Camp.

Any suggestions?

[fryke]

Reset PRAM, NVRAM, Power Manager etc.

[zynizen]

Originally Posted by bbloke

For now, zynizen, have you tried the Fusion 1.1 Beta? I was wondering if it was any better for the issues you describe.

No I haven't. But, for those interested I have updated my parallels to 3.0 5160 like I had mentioned above, and this has solved the crashing issue. I've tested this error every which way possible for about an hour to replicate the crash, and was unable to.

I'm happy! And still have 100% reliable networking.

[Just_Kris]

I'd like to bump this thread and see how folks feel about VM vs. Parallels in Leopard environment. Feedback please?