Hi all,

I was wondering which one is the best to get?

I know that VMware is in beta but I think people who have used it have a good idea where it will be once it is released.

I have read some bad things about Parallels 3.0 and was wondering if it is worth getting or should I try and get the previous version?

I am not really needing it for games but I would like to run Vista. The thing about VM Ware what sounds good to me is the dual CPU support.

I will be using this on a new Mac pro (2.66mhz with 2 gig ram). I am even looking at possibly getting both but do not know if it would be worth it. As I have not yet recieved my mac I am looking for some advice.

Cheers....

Both are great solutions, I've thoroughly used both, and found VMware has better support with linux than parallels did (before 3.0).

Both have coherence (vmware calls it "unity" which the guest os "embeds" itself into the host os visually, have a look on youtube of videos demonstrating "Parallels Coherence" and "Vmware fusion unity".

Personally I'd go with parallels due to that reason, but mind you if the final version of vmware fixes the issue where the start button isn't in the dock then I may swing over to using that. I honestly can't see major performance differences in both (except vista is slightly quicker, SLIGHTLY). When you get the mac pro, I'd sit down and play with both programs, and see for yourself. Getting the older version of parallels may not be a good idea (as it has a lot of fixes too).

Best answered by yourself, based on your usage and product experience. Personally I think Parallels had stormed ahead, and then VMware slowly got into the market on the platform and have come forward to match Parallels.

VMware Fusion is about to hit beta 4, and currently is available as a pre-order @ 50% off. They hope to have GA by end of August according to the pre-order information available.

I've been a long time user of VMware Workstation since the early days of 1.0 and 2.0 on Linux and Windows platforms. So I have an association with it going back, so I already use it for various things. Thus these virtual machines I can copy over to VMware Fusion and use them anytime without conversion. So for me it makes life easier to continue with VMware Fusion over Parallels.

I can't say who is better or not. But both certainly have some features, which the other hasn't. As can be seen by VMware pumping into Fusion some of the features that Parallels did have. Like wise for Parallels taking from VMware Fusion features (or hope too).

Further more, I'd have to say @ 50% off for pre-order, it's a good buy. So good time to jump on the bandwagon before they put the price up to full RRP after it goes GA late August.

You can't compare the speed of both products against each other currently, as the VMware Fusion binary available is a BETA, thus it is a debug build. So includes debug overhead at run time (as indicated when you start it for the first time). When this is stripped out in the final GA product, then you compare them both for speed wise. Until then expect VMware Fusion to be slower due to the debug binary.

With an iMac purchase on the horizon, I have been reading all I can about both products and as yet I am not sure which way I will go. Both seem to offer similar features, so I guess it might come down to how easy it is to get each.

I've used both. And they are so similar to one another that I really don't think it matters which one you go for.

Parralels currently has my vote, but probably just because it was the first one I tried.

I think I have this right but I can get Parallels fo about $100.00 Aus online and Vm Ware at the moment for about $55.00aus online with there 50% off promotion for pre-order. In that case I think I might just get both!