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Macworld: VMWare versus Parallels—fight!

arstechnica.com — Who would have thought that two companies would have been fighting so hard to emulate Windows on the Mac?

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koregaonpark 1 year 315 days ago, made popular 1 year 315 days ago

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Who Dugg It?

charlief, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8These two applications are going to be the focal point of the virtual issue...sort of the same way that IE7 and Friefox are (sort of). Either way, having these two duke it out in the industry is going to be an interesting fight considering both do their jobs pretty well. I'm more interested to see the dust settled and who ends up being the biggest hitter in the virtual market. Either way, i'm sure the winnner will be the consumer.
- Craga89, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I'm more interested in the features each will release to try and get ahead of one another.
- magicmarc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Agreed Craga. Its good having a little competition. Each company will release new stuff, and try to be better and faster in doing so.
- skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Seems parallels is just a desktop product, whereas VMWare makes an enterprise-class product that scales up nicely to run server applications.
- shuffle2, on 10/12/2007, -8/+5@skyshock: totally agree. parallels may get "popular", but i can't see it coming out on top.
- crgnetworks, on 10/12/2007, -15/+3But the real question is: Will it blend?
- ShrimpCrackers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Who would have thought that two companies would have been fighting so hard to emulate Windows on the Mac?"
  
  Well lets see... many Mac users use Windows for gaming... and considering the Windows gaming industry is larger than the entire Mac industry itself, then yes, we could foresee it.
defectDS, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Do either support graphic cards yet? The only reason I use Boot Camp is because I get to use my MacBook Pro's X1600 to play my games (Total Anihillation FTW). The first one that allows me to use my card gets my vote.
- Craga89, on 10/12/2007, -17/+7"Do either support graphics cards yet"
  
  Lol.... No they do not support graphics cards! You'll have to do without a god damn screen for once!
  /sarcasm
- chrisgeleven, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6If you read the end of the article, the next beta of Parallels will have it.
- TomP, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Total Anihillation FTW
- clackerd, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0F Total Annihilation in the A
ckr4282, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Being a notebook user, battery drainage is another factor in choosing which application to use. It tends to get overlooked in reports like these.
megagram, on 10/12/2007, -11/+8I like lamp.
jordansampson, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2VMware is much easier to setup and use. At least that has been my experience.
UltimaNut, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6VMWare players are free. Beat that Parallels.
- coldphoenix, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1Yes, but technically you would still have to "pay" for vmware images to utilize that vmware player.
- stalefries, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Huh? That's like saying you still have to "pay" to use Windows. DUH
- drakino, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4VMWare Player is free, but doesn't exist for OS X. It's free on Windows to compete with Microsoft, and to try and get companies to buy the higher end server products and support contracts.
  
  VMWare for the Mac will not be free.
- drycounty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1VMWare on the Mac is still beta. We have yet to see if "Fusion" will be free.
CrazyZ, on 10/12/2007, -14/+6Why? I mean, Macs are so awesome! Why run windows etc.. on one at all? If you need windows to the point that you will sacrifice performance just to run it on an overpriced piece of hardware then you are an idiot.

Microsoft won this whole ordeal without even actually fighting. I mean, Apple sales wouldn't be half what they are if you couldn't now load MS's OS on the hardware..... Hilarious that this gets spun to apple's advantage somehow.
- mikesbaker, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2exactly - now lets see how far the fan boys digg you down
- kevbryant, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4There are reasons. Even so, ignoring the useless...
  
  Parallels. Hands down more creative and quicker on the trigger, they're down to damn near daily betas with new features each time. I don't necessarily WANT to run win either, but for what I need, parallels integrates better and there's definitely more innovation and balls in the parallels camp.
- aik0n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I own a MacBook and run Parallels on it almost every day. It's nice that I can take it into work and do all/most of my development in Visual Studio within Parallels and use Outlook, Word, and IE (for the intranet apps). Does that mean I'm an idiot?
  
  I bought this laptop without the intentions of running Parallels on it, it just so happens that it makes my life a whole lot easier when I can use my OS of choice (OS X) and be able to boot up Windows if I need to. Sure beats keeping two computers around.
- countmandible, on 11/15/2007, -0/+1I use Boot Camp on my MacBook, and it benefits Apple because I bought their hardware. Sales in the corporate world means benefit.
  It's not spin.
  
  Why use Boot Camp on the Mac? Well at first I thought I was going to be doing all of my dev work in Windows mode...but the Remote Desktop Client is awesome in OSX so I really only boot to windows when I want to play a game that I can't find for OSX.
  
  Other than that I try to avoid M$.
- Eyeooga, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Please don't feed the trolls. We keep them on a special diet.
- CrazyZ, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0YOU ARE STILL GIVING YOUR MONEY TO MICROSOFT! Unless of course you are using a pirated version of XP or Vista, then your are just breaking the law..... So once again, if 10 people purchase a Macbook, and 8 of those people are running bootcamp to dualboot into XP, how's Microsoft loosing out to Apple on this? You are actually paying extra to utilize a platform that you must not really need if you keep booting into the other one.
splat215, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I like Parallels, I use Parallels and I paid for it but ....

USB support is absolute crap.

Getting any USB devices to work under Parallels is a dice roll, will it or will it not crash windows? In comparison, I've never had any issues using USB devices under VMWare products. USB support needs to improve tremendously in Parallels before it really can claim the throne.
cavemonkey50, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5If anyone's excited about graphics acceleration being in the next beta, it's going to be longer than you think. Parallels just entered release candidate stage, so it will be another development cycle before we see it.
naiku, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2this is great. I hope parallels and VMware keeps developing better and better things OSX. Just hopefully they dont pump up the price and the customers win.
djh816, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7not emulation. it's "virtualization".
Kalan, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte already put this issue to bed in an episode of Security Now.

Steve Gibson said that Parallels speed is unmatched. However, VMware has patented incremental-disk-image-tools Technology that makes it a more interesting developer/QA tool.

Either way, I am glad VMWare came to the market, will keep Parallels on its toes. Competition is always better for the end-user.
- jull1234, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1You do realize that VMWare has been around since the beginning of time, right?
- drycounty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I believe the above person was saying that in a Mac context.
moronpatrol, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0had it installed on my macbook for 15 minutes...decided really have no use for windows so removed it...not that i ever did.
Now linux would be useful but i use my pismo for that still as long as there is ppc support.

I guess for work/career (gis,cad,etc) if you have win apps you need to run would be good, but for home seems pointless.
I found when i went macs at home, i just stopped bringing work home...screw it =) worked out well.
Harmless, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Google Fight !!! http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Parallels&word2=VMWare
- stalefries, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For the lazy, VMWare won, with 23,200,000 hits compared to Parallels' 21,200,000 hits. Close race.
- diggerphelps, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3VMWare has been around a lot longer.
PyroKittens, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4VMWare gave me a free t-shirt at macworld....
- Eyeooga, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8free tshirt? that's it, i'm going with vmware
- drycounty, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I got a Parallels shirt AND a VMWare shirt! But guess which I'll be wearing more often?
  
  After meeting the Parallels team in SF, I must say I left impressed. They are top-notch guys and gals working really hard and have every right to own the Macworld "best in show" product. Keep up the good work, folks!
torifile, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Inaccurate. Neither VMWare nor Parallels emulate anything. They're virtualization software. Never again will Mac users have to suffer with poor emulation to run Quicken. That's important to remember.
- diggerphelps, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Also they don't "emulate Windows" as the blurb says.
  They virtualize the hardware that Windows (or Linux, or *BSD, or OpenSolaris, etc) runs on.
sachmanb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1OSx86 in parallel...on a PC.... that'd be cool. If OSX rocks, why won't they let it go the other way as well? I like Apple's innovations but they're far more proprietary than Microsoft and I like having control over my computer.... That OSX is now FreeBSD with a pretty interface made me excited but now if they can just let go of that hardware clinging -- I'm there. (yes I know about OSx86 hacks -- they suck).
- cwcheang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2As much as I'd like to run OSX on my PC legally I think it's not necessarily a good thing after all. It's better for Apple to tie in their hardware with their software and make the experience good above anything else. Mac is such a joy to use because of the tight integration. It's what makes Mac different.
  
  eg The Software Update basically updates everything on a Mac vs Individual updates for various components on a PC; making things a lot more complicated. there are a lot of other little things(=big) that only the Apple integration can provide.
  
  I am sure OSX wont run as good on a all hardwares, just like how windows would crash on crappy hardwares with even crappier drivers. You just cant make an OS perfect for everything.
  
  ...So yeah.. I'd rather Apple limit their OS on their hardware and charge a premium as long as the Mac experience remains.
- tdowling, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's because hardware is Apple's bread and butter. The last time they tried allowing their OS on other hardware (Power Computing, etc.), it ended up hurting them.
yakoff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2For what it's worth, both companies and their products have their place. VMware seems more oriented to server environments, Parallels more the individual computer. Bootcamp even fits in. They all have many cross platform solutions. Windows on Mac, Linux on Windows - different versions of Windows on Windows etc.

My own experience:

I have always used a virtual solution, I like Mac, but my company has proprietary software that runs on Windows. I used to use Virtual PC, not bad, SoftWindows (sucked). I bought a Macbook in June and was ready to use Bootcamp. Then Parallels showed up. I coughed up 50 bucks because I thought I would be able to run both at the same time. I thought it would be Virtual PC redux and that I would go to Bootcamp.

It worked flawlessly. I bought and installed Windows XP Pro. It booted and ran at the same speed as my desktop Dell - on steroids. The proprietary Windows programs include a front end to an AS 400 and a graphic and memory hog E File system. Ran them at the same speed - while I had Mac programs running in the background. I have yet to pay for an upgrade to Parallels, I am sure that I will, but not yet. Parallels will run Vista and I have not had any difficulty connecting USB devices - maybe lucky - frankly no speed bumps. I travel a lot, use ethernet and wireless without issue. It is easier to configure wireless for this than with a Thinkpad. I have had to spend hours helping colleagues configure their Thinkpads - which I think are the best Windows laptops out there - for wireless access from a remote location.

The part I like the best is, that if the Windows system gets f**ked, which happens from time to time, I can trash it and switch to the copy I made last week.

I am a believer in virtualization, whether going from Mac to Windows, or any other operating system to another - life is easier, you are not tied to one hardware system, easy to recover from disasters, and you are not tied to one software paradigm.

All of these companies should be supported and encouraged. It can only make our lives better.
phill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Both companies are going to get a surprise when everyone starts dumping Windows software like it's the plague. I see Linux and Mac coming out on top in the next three years.
mntalkase, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Parallels has coherence. That's it, game over.

I'm running my MacBook Pro in Coherence mode with the latest Parallels Beta. It's amazing. It's completely changed the way I work.

You can drag and drop files between folders in different OS's.
You can copy text, Apple+Tab, paste text into the new window.
You can open your exchange email in Microsoft Outlook while reading your gmail in safari.
oops... what was the weather again? Invoke dashboard while reading a god awful IE-only website... in IE7!

Coherence mode in Parallels... Game Over
- drycounty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Agreed, coherence mode is a freaking amazing thing to witness. I only hope that they retain whatever kind of legal rights there is on this, as I'm sure VMWare would love to get it's hands all over it... VMWare had some early patents on virtualization that Parallels now (legally) cannot touch. I hope this gives Parallels a leg up in the game.
MrViklund, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2They are not emulating...
neriusb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Vmware USB support is great. All USB devices I have are working in Vmware Fusion, but I have a lot of USB devices which are not working even in latest version of Parallels.
And take into account, that it's only first Vmware public beta !
murdoc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For me, the only reason to consider VMware is to take advantage of their catalog of VM appliances. I like Parallels better, but I would like the flexibility of VMware appliances. Hopefully, Parallels will add support for VMware VMs.
tboutcher, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1As a network engineer, I work very heavily with virtual servers and desktops. When you compare Xen, Vmware, and parallels. Vmware is vastly better then its competitors.
nonsequitor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Dugg for the first comment post to that article suggesting he go back to VMWare and ask when their product will be including coherence.
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Macworld: VMWare versus Parallels—fight!

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