Comments on: Parallels Desktop vs. VMware Fusion

By: elehmann

elehmann — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:13:54 +0000

I am using VMware fusion exclusively now. It changes the battery life indeed, as soon as you fire up a virtual machine it seems that the MacBook needs more energy.
Would say that instead of 3 hours the battery lasts for 2 hours by then. But my battery is already 1 + 2/3 years old and is not that good anymore as in the beginning.

By: Paul008

Paul008 — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:09:01 +0000

hi,

just wanted to know if the battery life changed during the use of Parallel or VMware Fusion?

I need a long Battery life, ´cause of my study

thanx for answering,

Paul

By: Herve5

Herve5 — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 11:02:51 +0000

Thank you Eckhard for this quick reply!
I’m going to try this week-end :-)
Hervé

By: elehmann

elehmann — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:54:28 +0000

Herve, I used Parallels Desktop latest version and Fusion in 1.0. Both installed Kernel extensions and tools to my Bootcamp Windows, but I experienced no conflicts between them. The only problem is with Windows XP professional OEM, that it want’s to be reactivated “when hardware changes”. This means, you need to reactivate it everytime you switch from Parallels to Fusion and vice versa (not in two subsequent runs of either Fusion or Parallels) For Windows, it is just one click and everything is fine again, but with the MS Office 2003 that I bought in addition, it does not work. I can only run it when I boot Windows from BootCamp, they don’t let me activate it inside Parallels or Fusion again.

By: Herve5

Herve5 — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 08:35:56 +0000

I am currently using a paid version of Parallels, and after six months found one single PC program that won’t work in it.

As it is professionally important for me, I’d like to install Fusion and try it, but I am fearful of the cohabitation with Parallels.

It seems both install kernel extensions, etc., and if instaling Fusion trashes my Parallel setup it will be catastrophic for me. (I only have one single intel mac…)

I see you seem to have used both on the same machine: could you confirm that? Which versions did you use?

Thank you!
Hervé

By: Scott F

Scott F — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:54:13 +0000

I have used Fusion and Parallels since the first beta version of both products. Parallels does deserve credit for being first to market, but VMware has already surpassed them.

I disagree with Viswanaths comments regarding Parallels being “Production Quality” and Fusion being beta. My experience is exactly the opposite. The released version of Fusion is fantastic and can run on more than one core, which is a great option for newer machines. Parallels seems to be constanting “testing” products and charging customers to be beta testers.

By: elehmann

elehmann — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:48:34 +0000

Viswanath, I am mostly annoyed with the long initialization time for Parallels until the BootCamp VM comes up. And the random “can not access Disk” errors, the strange warning for Parallels tools and the frequent requirement to install these security patches. Besides that, Parallels works fine as well, but these things bother me too much.
And they don’t happen with Fusion – so it seems that, although this is indeed a very young product, Fusion is already more stable. Many of the problems in the discussion forum are obviously for older beta versions.. also I’ve seen many “Windows Activation” problems – and this is due to Mickysoft, not VMware or Parallels. They should stop to annoy their customers with this stupid activation thing.

By: Viswanath Tumu

Viswanath Tumu — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:17:23 +0000

The big difference between Fusion and Parallels is that Fusion is essentially a Beta Product with a 1.0 Moniker while Parallels is a Production Quality Product. It is impossible to use Fusion properly on a day to day basis; for example, you cannot burn a CD, there are no drivers for many USB devices, and so on. Even a cursory visit to Fusion’s support discussion will reveal the innumerable problems that need to be sorted out before the product is usable like Parallels.

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Top Posts « WordPress.com — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 23:58:41 +0000

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By: elehmann

elehmann — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:37:20 +0000

Michel, I also have some trouble with Office products and “changed hardware”, but very different. I installed an OEM version of MS Office 2003 professional, and it has obviously only a license for one computer. Everytime I start it on a Fusion VM, it forces me to activate it again – and this procedure does not work. I can only use the full version when I start Windows from BootCamp… No idea how to get around this, but it is a licensing issue. Now I know why this OEM version was *relatively* cheap. For Windows XP professional OEM this doesn’t seem to be a problem. I can activate it on two computers, BootCamp and either VMware or Parallels. When I switch between VMware and Parallels, I just need to activate it again and this works seamlessly.
So it seems that I need to use OpenOffice in parallel for the few cases when I need an Office in VMware. But for people who want to use MS Office on both, BootCamp and a VM, I’d recommend to get a license for two computers.

Patrick, no I didn’t test any games on VMware except Spider Solitair (and this works just fine ;-).