Applications :: VirtualBox Beats Parallels And VMWare
Dec 16, 2009
I had Parallels 5, to run the odd extra OS for giggles and sometimes practical reasons. At work they have VMWare for the odd XP program. Eventually, they both annoyed me with their bloated nature. I dunno about you guys but I downloaded VirtualBox, and I am very impressed with it to say it's free. With Parallels, running Windows XP with 1GB of ram, my fans would blow franticly. The same on VirtualBox, and everything is smooth, it is so lightweight, has all the features and supports OS's a lot more than Parallels and VMWare.
I am getting ready to finally "make the switch" to Mac and I need a Virtualization solution to ease the transition for my wife and let me run my work environments as well. I have been considering VirtualBox [URL] which is free for personal use, as well as VMWare Fusion 3, and Parallels. The satisfaction rating seems to be lower with the Parallels users (maybe disgruntled on charging folks for 2 upgraded within 2 months of each other) so I have almost ruled it out, but I still need to decide.
The big thing here is that I need this software from day one to make sure my wife doesn't have to miss a beat during the transition. I'd rather not be reinstalling Windows _again_ in 2 weeks to switch solutions. Anybody have any experience with VirtualBox on Mac and can maybe share some of the shortcomings versus VMWare Fusion or Parallels? Is there good reason fork over the cash and go with Fusion or Parallels?
I'm looking to create a virtual machine on my i5 MBP because I need to run some specific Windows software (Tacx Training Software, I'm into cycling). Which one of the 3 virtual machine programs is better from a performance/stability perspective? Has anybody seen a comparison test yet? I understand that VirtualBox is free for personal use, is it really worth paying for the other two?
I know the issue of what virtualization package is best on the mac has been debated endlessly, but the only thing I have been able to conclude is that some people have great experiences with each package and some people have horrible experiences with each package. I'm interested in some numbers and figure this place is a better forum for collecting this data than, say, the apple store.
Which is better to use? I understand you don't need to reboot to use Parallels or Vmware but is it fully functional? And do either of these kill the performance of the system?
And what's the difference between Parallels and Vmware?
I'm ready to upgrade my MacBook 13" late 2006 model to a new 15 inch pro, and realize that, especially in the college environment where many professors demand windows, I should run it somehow. I've been doing extensive research for the last hour on the best way to run it, however I'm in a complete deadlock. Some people say just do boot camp, but I don't mind paying up to $100 extra if it will really be much smoother. Even when I try to compare the differences between VMware and Parallels (the latest versions of both), I don't see anything hugely significant. Plus, I see just as many complaints about both of them (I'm reading 1-star HORROR STORIES on amazon of each one), and really, really just want a smooth experience. So, my dear MacRumors friends, I come to you for advice. Which of the three programs do you recommend?
I'm a MBA Rev. A user (first day 1.8/SSD). I recently upgraded the stock SSD with a Photofast 128GB model for more space. Both before the SSD upgrade, and more noticeably after, my Windows XP virtual machine seemed to run poorly: fequent "pauses" and generally really slowly. At that time I was using Fusion; I decided to give Parallels a try. Slightly lower RAM footprint, but still slow. I found that disabling the shared folder feature helped somewhat; adding the NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate registry key also helped somewhat.
Still frustrated, I tried Fusion 3; that didn't help. Then Parallels 5 came out, and I had missed the free upgrade cutoff by 3 weeks. Even more frustrated, I decided to try VirtualBox. Oh, my. It installs easily. It does everything I need. It runs smoothly (no pauses, good speed in the VM). It's FREE. Bonuses: the RAM footprint is even smaller; the hard drive container file seems smaller (even with exactly the same contents inside the VM). The only downside is a lack of "coherence" or "unity" mode, which I never liked anyway.
I am a rock-solid convert to VirtualBox, and highly recommend it over the commercial products for running a Windows XP virtual environment (I have not tried Windows 7, nor will I; with only 2GB of real RAM in an MBA I cannot imagine that will go over well).
However, I am unwilling to give up the easy of using AnyDVD and CloneDVD2. I am successfully using them via Boot Camp, but I really don't want to reboot just to copy a movie.I have tried Sun's VirtualBox and get an error when I start the copy process.My question to the world: Has anyone successfully used VMware Fusion 2 or Parallels with AnyDVD and CloneDVD2?
Any thoughts on how VirtualBox compares to the Fusion and Parallels versions? I think VirtualBox would be a nice free alternative if you are running Windows in Bootcamp.
I just finished putting up some Benchmarks of Windows 7 using the latest builds of Parallels, Fusion and VirtualBox with both x86 and x64 based images on various Macs. More results coming soon. [URL]
I just bought a Mac Pro, my 2nd Mac to compliment my MacBook Pro. The different is this Mac Pro is replacing my Windows Desktop. Since I'm going to be using one of the internal drives as a server drive for my home network I don't want to use Boot Camp since I don't want to have to reboot. My question, which of the virtualization products should I go with? For Windows I don't use it heavily. I don't do much gaming and just use a few programs such as QuickBooks, a couple other accounting programs, and I also burn some DVD's and CD's on it. I assume this won't require heavy use and with 6GB of memory memory shouldn't be an issue. For now I plan to use just Windows XP but if Vista ever gets more stable I will switch to it. At the office they also have some Linux machines and my husband wants to set up a Ubuntu Linux machine so someday we could even have Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Linux machines. I have read so much both ways of which to go with and it seems it all depends on when the last one was updated but I also don't want to go with one just to switch soon so am wondering if one is more safe and future proof.
With all the new software partitions available for the mac for users to be able to utilize any Windows OS on their Mac, many ask what about all the viruses that comes from windows? Will the Mac still be protected even though Windows is running on it? does the Mac saying "114,000 viruses, not for a Mac," still stand? Give me your input.
I've just got a 13" 1.86GHz with 4GB RAM. I'm wondering which is the best option to go with. I've been using VMWare up until now as my Hackintosh does not support intel-VTx or whatever. I think parallels looks much better, but don't know how it is with performance. So does anyone have experience using both on their machine and can recommend either one? I'm looking for best performance mostly as I run in single window and not Unity.
I am currently using Parallels and I've been fairly satisfied with it.
I have read a lot of good things about VMware and I'm thinking about changing.
My question is this - would I be able to simply 'point' VMware to my existing windows installation (the one that parallels is using)? Or would I have to do a fresh install and lose everything on the Windows side?
I'd really like to use Captivate's functionality on my Mac, and figure that it might work through virtualization. Has anyone tried Adobe (used to be Macromedia) Captivate on a Mac through Parallels? Does it even work?
I have an iMac 24" 2.8ghz, 4gb ram, mid 2008. I have a couple of programs that only work under Windows, plus my wife doesn't want to learn Mac (sigh). I've been reading the threads (via mroogle) and looking at the documentation available from both Parallels and VM Ware and I'd like to know if I my understanding of how it works is correct. For Bootcamp, you partition your HD to create a bootcamp partition and OSx puts in drivers that allows you to install/boot windows in that partition and then you simply boot from that partition. This seems to be the closest to a genuine Windows environment. Right?
For Parallels/VM Ware, you install the application and then it runs in an OSx window and you create a virtual machine which installs windows and then it runs under OSx. Then you don't need windows drivers since Parallels/VM supplies the drivers as part of its own code. The virtual machine (64 gb or so) becomes your "hard disk" (I think) and OSx doesn't see the file system from other applications. Parallels/VM emulates the PC bios more or less? So I would need an OEM copy of Windows XP plus the service pack and also VM Ware or Parallels if I choose that route.
What is the Best way to play PC only games on a mac. From what I have read I assume Boot Camp is the best, but am not quite sure. If I wanted to go the virtualization route, which would be better for gaming, VMware Fusion or Parallels?
Was just looking for some advice on which virtual machine you guys are finding works better on Snow Leopard. I have Parallels 4, which I had on Leopard as well, with windows XP. Pn leopard it ran beautifully, however since upgrading I find its unbearably slow, and causes my whole system to slow down. I dont know if this is with parallels or with my system in general, as I have had a bit of trouble with Snow Leopard, though I believe I have sorted that out.
How have people found VMware to run in comparison to parallels? Is it worth switching?
The majority of us use Parallels and/or VMWare to virtualize Windows XP, Vista, or 7 however there also is an option to run a virtualized installation of OSX as well. How is the performance? Which do you prefer for OSX, Parallels or VMWare?
I'm gonna give my mom my 13" Unibody Aluminum MacBook 2.0GHz with 2GB RAM and a 160GB HDD. She needs to run the Windows version of Quickbooks and I'm wondering whether to set her up in BootCamp, Parallels, or VMWare. She doesn't necessarily need to virtual machine and she probably won't use more than 20 GB, but what are your thoughts?
I am having a very hard time installing doss 6.22 on my Mac. Why would I want too? Well cause of work, we have some a lot of old data at work that was collected over the years using dos programs and I need to go threw it and pull out what I need, when I need it. So having it on my laptop would be great. I have tried both Parallels & VMware with no luck. I can't get them to realize that I have a floppy drive, it's a usb floppy drive. I have 6gig of memory running snow lepoard. I have been thinking of trying the Sun Microsystem software but thought I would ask here first.
I use VOIP discount program to make calls on the home stationary phone and while it works perfectly well from BootCamp, I'm experiencing unbearable screeching noise as soon as I try to use my USB headset in Parallels/VMWare to make a call. It's really frustrating as I thought that by installing the latter I wouldn't have to boot into BootCamp anymore solely for the purpose of using VOIP.
I wanted to to know and make a post comparing VMware Fusion 3 and Parallels Desktop 5 with the new updates. Which one is better in running multiple OSs at the same time. Do they support hypervisor. Cause i want to create a virtual environment to learn Server 2008 and Mac Os Server. Which one would be better to use VMware Fusion 3 or Parallels Desktop 5. As I said before I want this thread to be used to compare the two programs so if anybody else has question post them more question the better, of coarse if we get answers.
I am considering getting my first mac (MBA) but I have an external hdd with NTFS format. I've read that OSX can read files from NTFS but cannot write to it. What if I run Parallels/VMware using the bootcamp partition? Can I then write files to the external hdd?
Courtesy of jjahshik32, in this thread; A possible resolution has hopefully been found for us users affected by the notorious Mac Pro RAW (Reboot after Wake) problem.
For some users (myself included), the RAW problem seems to appear consistently after running a virtual machine session (Parallels or VMware Fusion, thus far) prior to putting the machine to sleep.
I did the following to test my MP. Can you do something similar and give us your results?
