Just a couple of quick comments: 1) Your mileage may vary --- pick one, install it, and test it thoroughly for your intended purpose during the free return window. If it doesn't work, try the other one. I, for instance, found out this way that QuickBooks Pro 2005 (which is the entire reason I run Windows) simply would not install on a Parallels VM. A little digging found this to be a known problem with no solution. (I switched, and it installed fine on a VMware Fusion VM.) I would not be the least bit surprised if there are apps for which the reverse is true.
2) WRT the VMware partnership with McAfee: Having this morning fired up Fusion and gotten the 'a newer version is available' dialog, I happen to be looking right now at the downoad page for VMware Fusion 2.0.6. Which offers, as has every other version of this page I remember seeing, the option of downloading Fusion with McAfee - or without it. I, as always, downloaded and installed the version without it. This -does- mean that I have a greyed out "Install McAfee Virusscan Plus' menu item, but I can't quite manage to muster any annoyance over this fact. ---Alex > For most peoples' purposes, these are both awesome products, very feature > rich, and equally priced. It's nearly a coin flip to choose which one is > better, but depending on your needs, one might have a differentiator for > you. > > > > For me personally, based on all the stuff below, the deciding factor is > support for Windows 7. I am going with Parallels mostly based on this > differentiator. > > > > Stuff that's the same > > . Both have built-in converters that allow you to easily migrate a > VM. Parallels lets you import a Fusion machine, and Fusion lets you import > a Parallels machine. And so on. Both products can handle VMWare, > Parallels, VirtualPC or VirtualBox, or any older version of the software. > > . Both have fullscreen mode, windowed mode, or "unity" vs > "coherence" > > . Both allow you to share files easily between the Mac and your > guest Windows > > . Both support 3D graphics > > . Both are very feature rich, with ability to start/stop/add/change > network adapters, cd drives, floppy, usb, sound, parallel ports . while the > guest is running. > > . The following is a matter of personal opinion. I think that > neither Unity or Coherence is very good. They both have severe problems > with Expose and Spaces. I recommend: Don't use Unity or Coherence. With > either product, just run in full screen mode, and give windows its own > dedicated Space. > > . Both products do snapshotting and can auto-snapshot your systems > periodically for safety reasons. > > > > Stuff that's better in Parallels > > . Parallels Explorer is an app which allows you to mount the hard > disk of a guest OS while the guest isn't powered on. So if you don't always > have your guest on, you can easily add/remove/copy files to/from the guest. > And you can recover files out of a guest if that guest has somehow become > corrupted or unbootable. > > . Windows 7 is a supported guest OS in Parallels. By comparison, in > Fusion . there are articles written on "how to make windows 7 run in > fusion," but officially it's not a supported OS, and many articles have been > written by people having difficulties. > > . The default keymappings & mouse mappings of Parallels simply make > sense. For example, ctrl-shift-click is to right-click. By comparison, in > fusion, the default is ctrl-click to right-click. Now how are you supposed > to ctrl-click to highlight more than one item??? It's a default setting > which is dumb, but fortunately very easily configurable. You just have to > be aware, "as soon as I install Fusion, go change the key mappings." > > . In addition to the other screen modes, Parallels has a new mode > called "Modality," which allows your whole windows machine to be always > present, but partially transparent as long as you're looking at a Mac app. > > . Umm. This is really a mild irritant about Fusion. VMWare > apparently formed a partnership with McAfee to incorporate McAfee into > Fusion. It will prompt you to install McAfee, even if you already have > antivirus running. And even after you say No, it's always present under the > "Virtual Machine" menu. > > . In Parallels, you can configure your VM to start in whatever > display mode you like. Fullscreen, coherence, modality, whatever. By > comparison, unfortunately, Fusion can only startup in windowed or fullscreen > mode. You can't start Fusion in Unity if that's your preference. You have > to wait till it's up, and then switch. > > > > Stuff that's better in Fusion > > . When you enable sharing between guest & host, the performance in > fusion is superb. It's as fast as browsing a local hard disk. By > comparison, sharing between guest & host in parallels is . slow enough that > I only use it when I have no other choice. If there's a set of files in the > mac that I need regularly in windows, then I copy them locally inside > windows so I don't need to rely on the sharing regularly. > > . This is unconfirmed, but . I hear if you have an ESXi server, you > can simply copy your VM files to it, and run your VM on a different set of > hardware for a while, if you have something which will be compute intensive > or memory intensive, or if you have any other reason why you'd want to run > your VM on a different machine for some reason. > > . You can make your Mac Firefox (or whatever) the default handler > for http:// and ftp:// urls and so on. By comparison - both products allow > you to specify mac or windows handler applications for any file type you > want, but only Fusion has the ability to extend that to URL handlers. > > > > Stuff that's different, but not a clear differentiator pro/con for either > product > > . Suppose you like Unity or Coherence. In Parallels coherence mode, > the Start Menu and Taskbar is always present. In Fusion unity mode, there > is an option: You can have the start menu & taskbar always present, or you > can get rid of them and all of the items of the start menu appear in a > mac-integrated way under the Fusion menus. > > o By default, Fusion uses the "don't show taskbar" mode, which is more > mac-integrated. It's good if you like this option. However, if you do > this, then you cannot see your System Tray icons, for example, to check the > status of Outlook or Windows Updates. So personally I don't like the "don't > show me the taskbar" mode. This actually just creates a new chore for me, > when I first install Fusion, if I am going to use Unity, then I have to > remember to go find the checkbox, and override the default behavior, to make > it more parallels-coherence-like. > > . In Fusion, you access the Fusion menu by just bringing your mouse > to the top of the screen. In Parallels, you access the Parallels menu by > pressing Ctrl-Alt > > o Personally, I prefer the Parallels way, because I already have things > like Remote Desktop and VNC Viewer which use the top edge of the screen. > Also it's really easy to accidentally hit the top edge of the screen when > you're just trying to hit the "File" menu of some application or whatever. > But you never accidentally hit the Ctrl-Alt keys, and I don't find it > inconvenient to do so when I want it. > > . Parallels has 14-day trial, while Fusion has 30-day trial _______________________________________________ bblisa mailing list [email protected] http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa
