[Ham-Mac] new iMac: parallels vs. fusion?

[David Kelly]

On Dec 24, 2009, at 10:19 PM, EZ Rhino wrote:

> I'm also excited to start running OSX and XP and using XP to run some  
> windows apps such as N1MM.  What is the consensus, parallels or  
> fusion?  Anything I need to know before I buy?  Looks like there are  
> some rebates that make parallels almost free if I order it with the  
> computer.

I am a longtime user of Parallels, have upgraded from 1 to 2 to 3 and drew the line and refuse to upgrade. Have since purchased VMware Fusion 1.x which had a free upgrade to 2.

I have had much fewer problems with VMware (essentially none) but one particular problem keep recurring on my computer, my boss's computer, and my parent's computer: Parallels' virtual network interface breaks so that the virtual machine does not have a network connection.

Have spent many hours on this problem trying to kick it back into operation. Many hours on phone with tech support, and on their forums. Kill -HUP the daemon didn't work. Brute force killing and manual restart didn't work. The only thing that worked was to uninstall Parallels, reboot, install, reboot, and magically for a random amount of time the virtual network worked.

When Parallels "upgrades" were $40, VMware was $30 outright. We all took that upgrade path and haven't regretted it.

As for performance, I don't run XP Pro (or 2000 Pro) for performance. But VMware 2.x can claim multiple CPU's (if available) when Parallels 3.x was limited to a single CPU. That is no longer the case with Parallels 4 and 5.

If you must have gaming performance then Boot Camp is your only option. Boot Camp is essentially a BIOS and device drivers that give Windows unlimited and unfiltered access to your Mac hardware.

--
David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly at HiWAAY.net
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Whom computers would destroy, they must first drive mad.