VMware vs. Parallels vs. Boot Camp

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I haven't seen a thread comparing the three yet, I have in install Windows on my Mac for my MBA program and was hoping to get some feedback. I currently have Boot Camp installed and a trial version of VMware. Here are a few questions I have:



1. Do I need Boot Camp in order to run either VMware or Parallels?

2. Which one do you use and what are the pros and cons of it?



Overall, which would be the best choice? I would like to run Mac and Windows at the same time, so I'd rather not be stuck with having to re-boot to switch back and forth.



Thanks in advance!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    smaxsmax Posts: 361member
    You don't need Boot Camp to run VMWare or Parallels, but Parallel can boot off a Boot Camp partition.



    If you want the best performance, use Boot Camp. It's the only one that supports hardware graphics acceleration and it won't have to share resources with OSX.



    If you just need to do basic stuff in Windows, Parallels would probably work for you.



    Boot Camp is free though, and I think the inconvenience of reboting into it is worth the saved money and performance boost.
  • Reply 2 of 14
    I migrated from Parallels to VMware. Parallels is so buggy now. Memory management in VMware is top notch also. That's the icing on the cake. I haven't used Boot Camp, but I rarely use Windows.
  • Reply 3 of 14
    Personally I still favour Parallels. I did try Fusion when it was in beta but wasn't impressed. I have been Parallels user since beta stage and use it all day everyday at work on my Macbook ( running Windows XP VM connected to work domain ) and have never found it at all buggy, in fact just the opposite I find it to be remarkably stable. The latest release has introduced proper support for Expose when running in Coherence mode and I now use as standard desktop configuration.



    From what I understand Fusion supports dual processor VM's but to be honest for my usage the XP machine runs very acceptably ( on a 2Gb RAM 2Ghz Macbook )



    --

    Scott

    http://ukmac.net
  • Reply 4 of 14
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ukmac View Post


    Personally I still favour Parallels. I did try Fusion when it was in beta but wasn't impressed. I have been Parallels user since beta stage and use it all day everyday at work on my Macbook ( running Windows XP VM connected to work domain ) and have never found it at all buggy, in fact just the opposite I find it to be remarkably stable. The latest release has introduced proper support for Expose when running in Coherence mode and I now use as standard desktop configuration.



    From what I understand Fusion supports dual processor VM's but to be honest for my usage the XP machine runs very acceptably ( on a 2Gb RAM 2Ghz Macbook )



    I have the same configuration and opinion. Parallels works great for me as well.
  • Reply 5 of 14
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    Parallels was so terrible and buggy for me I got VMWare. Thing is, Parellels was stable until some 2.5.x build a few months ago, and it just turned to crap. I waited and waited for weeks and a slew of updates came out but it kept crashing. One time it even kernal panicked me. So that was it for me.
  • Reply 6 of 14
    I am new to Mac's (getting ready to buy this week). Is there a way to synch mail boxes between the mac and windows using either VMWare/Parallels/Boot Camp? I may need use an app on Windows that will need email access. I want to keep both email on the mac as well as on the windows side synchronized so that I don't get confused switching back and forth.



    To me it sounds unlikely because of file naming structures. But I figured I'd ask.
  • Reply 7 of 14
    ukmacukmac Posts: 13member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ddoes View Post


    I am new to Mac's (getting ready to buy this week). Is there a way to synch mail boxes between the mac and windows using either VMWare/Parallels/Boot Camp? I may need use an app on Windows that will need email access. I want to keep both email on the mac as well as on the windows side synchronized so that I don't get confused switching back and forth.



    To me it sounds unlikely because of file naming structures. But I figured I'd ask.



    The simplest answer to this would be dont use POP3 mail client. Either use IMAP or a web mail service such as GMail, that way your email remains out on the Internet and you don't have to worry about where you access from ( or which platform ).



    --

    Scott

    http://ukmac.net
  • Reply 8 of 14
    ddoesddoes Posts: 4member
    We have existing email accounts that are POP3. The program I need to run in Windows needs outlook.
  • Reply 9 of 14
    crentistcrentist Posts: 204member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ddoes View Post


    We have existing email accounts that are POP3. The program I need to run in Windows needs outlook.



    Typically a single email account can be POPed to a Mac using the Mail app and also to a Windows PC using Outlook as long as both are correctly configured to leave the email message on the server (and as long as the email account itself is set up to not delete the message once it is POPed). You could in theory have a Gmail account (send me a private message if you need an invitation) that is being downloaded to both a program in Mac OS X and Windows. I am unsure, however, if these two operating systems being on the same computer complicates things.



    Can anyone answer if POP email is uniquely downloaded to a Mail/Outlook account based on the MAC address of the computer in question or can each mail program on a given computer keep track of messages that it has previously downloaded, etc?



    Assuming both Mail and Outlook on the same machine can keep track independently which mails are new and need to be downloaded and leave the message on the server long enough for the other program to download it this would, in my opinion, be ideal for incoming messages.



    If the workings of POP email is more complicated than this and the Windows app you have HAS to run Outlook, my suggestion would be to run Outlook on the Windows side, and use the web based mail client while on the Mac side (though less ideal than the previous scenario in my opinion).



    Next?
  • Reply 10 of 14
    ukmacukmac Posts: 13member
    Crentist is correct in saying that if you configure both POP3 mail clients to NOT delete messages on the mail server that you could run both Windows and Mac clients using POP3, however there are a couple of issues with doing this.



    Firstly, each time you fire up mail client in each OS it will have to download the email again. Depending on how much email you get this could mean downloading a lot of mail unnecessarily. IMAP has the advantage that the mail doesnt travel down your net connection unless you actually retrieve the message, typically the mail client will only download message headers in advance. FYI, both Mail.app and Outlook can handle IMAP connetions, though whether your email service does is obviously something you would need to investigate.



    The second issue is that each PC you need to download mail on would need to be individually setup and you MUST ensure that this setting is set. If it is not and you set off Outlook for example and it downloads and deletes messages in error, your email would no longer be visibile in Mail.app when you went back to it.



    POP mail clients work out what they need to download each time they connect by looking at the server and comparing with the local cache of previously downloaded emails so it does not depend on MAC addresses or any such strategy.



    Having made the switch to GoogleMail some time ago I would ( and do ) strongly recommend this as an approach. Googles SPAM filtering is simply the best I have seen. In the last couple of months I have only had 3 items of junk mail make it through to my mailbox. This is compared with previously when I was using Mail.app and its built in junk mail filtering where every day I had around 30-50 items of junk mail manage to get through.



    This and the fact that I can review my email anywhere ( even on my Blackberry ) make Googlemail the clear winner for me. I actually use Google Apps for Domains so my muxton.com emails are delivered directly to Google.



    The other aspect is that Googles mail service is infinitely more reliable than my ISP's service which regularly used to have long mail delays due to problems with the service. Mail sent to Google arrives virtually instantly.



    Cheers



    --

    Scott

    http://ukmac.net
  • Reply 11 of 14
    regreg Posts: 832member
    For your mail question about which program can download email. Each program has its own memory for emails. What we do for pop mail set your preference to leave mail on the server. That way all your programs can access them. Or you can have one of the programs that does not check for mail as often be the one that removes the mail from the server. We did this so we would get all our emails on our phones.



    We have not tried Fusion yet. Parallels works really well for us. Only problems have been with printers on wireless networks. It is more of a windows problem.
  • Reply 12 of 14
    i use crossover. it's not supper fast and takes up a lot of my processer. But it's okay i guess.
  • Reply 13 of 14
    I think I solved my own problem. The program only needs to send email and does not interact with any in-coming email. I am going to only configure the outgoing mail server in Outlook on the Window's side and have in-coming/out-going on the Mac side. As long as I cc myself on all sent emails, then I will have a copy. I can send vcards to myself. I can also add myself as an attendee to an appointment in outlook calender and the invite will hit the mail server and come in to the mac.



    Thanks for everyones help! The Macbook is getting ordered today!
  • Reply 14 of 14
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ddoes View Post


    I think I solved my own problem. The program only needs to send email and does not interact with any in-coming email. I am going to only configure the outgoing mail server in Outlook on the Window's side and have in-coming/out-going on the Mac side. As long as I cc myself on all sent emails, then I will have a copy. I can send vcards to myself. I can also add myself as an attendee to an appointment in outlook calender and the invite will hit the mail server and come in to the mac.



    Thanks for everyones help! The Macbook is getting ordered today!



    Great planning. Enjoy your MacBook, and I hope you get the Leopard install disc.
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