VMware fusion vs Parallels

If any of you people are thinking about dual-booting your recently acquired Lion system, but are looking at BootCamp as a last resort, then you are probably looking at virtualization software. This is pretty much running a OS on your computer as a window. The advantages of this are that you can quickly access your Windows or Linux and drag and drop files or data into them. The two most popular virtualization softwares on the market today are Parallels and VMware Fusion. They both have around the same price so I am going to trial both of them and see what I think.

Graphics-
Both of these softwares are good in graphics, but VMware would win it here. The sleek and simple virtual machine home, combined with a smooth transition is hard to beat. Parallels, on the other hand, has a very abstract system. It's good but not great.

Speed-
These two are nose-to-nose when it comes to speed on a relatively fast computer, like my desktop. However, with my laptop, it can take a long while to process on Parallels. VMware on the other hand takes a lot faster. So with this one, VMware wins!

Compatibility-
Parallels is a lot more compatible in terms of software. If you have a long-lost version of Windows or Linux is the way to go.

So there you have it. My comparison of these two softwares. It's up to you to make the decision between both of them. However, if you don't have the money then a freeware called VirtualBox is also good for virtualization. Keep an eye out for the VirtualBox review!

Posted in: Mac