“There are two common methods for running Microsoft Windows and Windows programs on an Apple Macintosh, and one of those methods just got better and easier,” Walt Mossberg reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“The first approach uses a feature called Boot Camp that comes free on every new Mac. Using Boot Camp, the entire Mac is turned into a Windows PC, with the full capabilities and speed of a standard Windows machine. No trace of the Mac operating system is left running,” Mossberg reports. “The downside is that you can’t run Windows and Mac programs side by side.”
Mossberg reports, “The second approach uses one of two third-party programs to create a virtual Windows PC inside your Mac. This faux Windows machine runs at normal speeds and can operate simultaneously with the Mac’s own operating system. Programs native to each operating system can run side by side. The downside is that, because Windows doesn’t get complete control of the computer’s hardware, it isn’t quite as fast as in Boot Camp, and a few of its functions, like 3D graphics, don’t work as well.”
“This latter method is enabled by two excellent, closely matched $80 programs: Parallels, from a Swiss-based company of the same name, and Fusion, from VMWare (VMW), a U.S. company,” Mossberg reports. “It is Fusion that just got better, because VMWare just issued version 2.0 of the product with lots of new features, some of which let it catch up to the older Parallels and some of which push it ahead.”
Mossberg reports, “I’ve been testing Fusion 2.0 for a couple of weeks on two different Macs, and using it to run both Windows XP and Windows Vista. My verdict is that while you won’t go wrong with Parallels, Fusion edges it out as the better product.”
Read the full review here.
I’ve found Fusion 2.0 to be a real resource hog compared to Fusion 1.0. I’ve seen more beach balls and hang ups that I’ve ever seen before now that I run 2.0. I haven’t installed my Parallels 3.0 update yet. I’ll report back with a further comparison.
Mac mini 1.83GHz w/ 2GB RAM.
Let’s be honest here. Nothing could make “Windows run better”.
This seems tempting to replace Parallels with Fusion. However, I hear Parallels 4 is in private beta. If so, I’m wondering how it will stack up against Fusion.
Anybody know when to expect Parallels 4?
Fusion still doesn’t support Blu-Ray drives or discs, so I still have to Boot Camp to watch Blu-Ray movies on my Mac.
VirtualBox from Sun Microsystems is better than the two.
And it is FREE!
I love Sun.
I much rather take the 30 seconds to reboot into Windows. Yeah, you can’t run the Windows apps side-by-side with Mac apps, but I can only imagine limited need for that functionality. Besides, why would you need to run Windows except for games, anyway?
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Switched to Fusion 2 from Parallels 3.x; been running Parallels 4 Beta 2, and it sucks compared to Fusion 2.
Migration to Parallels Beta is horrible; migration from Parallels 3.x to Fusion 2 was simple and fast.
Why do I run Winblows? I’m a webmaster and I have to see how badly Exploder mangles web pages & then ‘fix’ them to make Exploder’s crappy renderer do what Firefrox and Safari naturally do — conform to the HTML/www standards.
>>Besides, why would you need to run Windows except for games, anyway?<<
For software for which there is no real OS X alternative for example. At least not yet.
I am on the private beta for Parallels 4 (I run XP on it), it looks pretty good and stacks up well against VMWare 2.0 which I also use (Vista). Both I have configured to do Visual Studio 08 development stuff and both do well. To date VMWare has had better performance due to its ability to address more processor cores. But it seems that with the release of Parallels 4 things will improve for them. And the UI of Parallels is still a lot better that VMWare for those who care about that stuff.
@Jimithy —
To test web sites in IE.
@easi – Any Blu-Ray support in Parallels yet?
Quicken on Windoze has always been better than Mac version. Better downloading from my brokerage. Sad to say…
I am considering installing XP Pro w/SP2 on my Mac for the purpose of playing games. That is the only reason why I would want to install Windows on my Macintosh.
For me there is no reason to want to share files/folders between the two and even if I do, a USB storage stick works, I think, or even my network attached storage will do.
So Boot Camp seems the better option and can I ask for MDN readers opinions?
My Windows using friends, yes I do have some, recommend I ignore Vista and get XP Pro.
@Luke Skywalker
Not sure that is not a hardware level thing… I don’t have a mac with a Blu-Ray drive. Sorry.
Everyone’s talking about Windows here, but I use Fusion to run various Linuxes to try them out, and VMWare has had better support for Linuxes that Parallels, especially in USB device support, memory cards, USB network cards, etc.
@Linux Collector
Yea, try and run Hardy Heron under Parallels desktop… Can’t (easily) install the Parallels Tools, and once you do, it still does not work correctly.
Fusion wins this battle.
If you want to run Windows forget XP. Vista is a vastly superior system. I’ve been using it for six months now and it rocks – slick, fast, good looking and not a single crash. All the negatives are just FUD. Still doesn’t look quite as pretty as OS X though.
Is it just me or is the Mac guy in the first commercial a patronising moron? (Well I know he is but…)
Mr. PC says ‘touche’ in response to the Mac guy saying he is also a PC, and then getting an explanation for this puzzling statement. He’s being generous and human like PC usually is, then gets a load of smug garbage from the Mac guy about ‘you’re not using that right, bla, bla bla’
These ads so reflect the Apple experience as typified by this site – arrogance based on ignorance.
@Go Lightly
Hey man! Take it easy, this is marketing… one could argue brilliant marketing (how does it stack up against the latest from MS?) Marketing, while often the domain of devil worshipers and as*holes, often plays to the lowest of human emotions. So, smug, while annoying, is what many people want to be, perhaps not be or you, but obviously the demographic the adds are aimed at. And given that apples share of the PC market continues to rise, I would say it is working. I use Vista every day and it ain’t that bad, but its marketing was botched and apple took advantage. Welcome to the world of business, read between the lines, get a mac.
Hi easi. Thanks for responding to my post in an intelligent way. To be honest I was just trying to rile a few Mactards, but in the process picked up an intelligent reader. Of course, I know this is marketing – I’m a freelance copywriter for leading UK agencies – it just intrigued me that the whole ad is based on a linguistic idiomatic fallacy – if you’re going to go down such an odd route for a marketing exercise I’d have thought it was worth getting it correct – that’s all.
@Go Lightly
Got it. Thanks for a sane response back. As for language though, again this is marketing, anything goes! But understandable from the perspective of copywriting. F****ing Marketers! Cheers!
@Go Lightly & easi
“Mactards”
It’s hard to take either of you seriously when;
1) One resorts to the childish practice of name calling (what are you trying to prove, that you’re 4 years old?) and
2) The other refers to a name caller as “sane”.
Good show of intelligence from you both…
Not.
@Go Lightly
Woo hoo starts name calling. But I can see a few ‘smartasses’ like you like to analyse little shits. Get a life.
VirtualBox.
It’s FREE. It works.
You can install it on an EXTERNAL hard drive. Boot Camp, Parallels and VMWare do NOT allow you to install on an External drive… they CAN be tricked by REMOVING your internal hard drive to install on an external… how handy!
Okay, it does take a little extra time to setup VirtualBox, but it really works well. The main thing is that the internal hard drive of my MacBook Pro isn’t polluted with XP.
Using Fusion 2.0 here…
…works GREAT!! Well polished!
I don’t use a boot camp partition because I don’t plan to use the other OS’s in full capacity.
Unfortunately Vista requires a DirectX9 capable video card and drivers. XP sucks as a OS of course.
I keep both Vista and XP off the internet for obvious security reasons.
Mr. Reeee
I self installed a 300GB internal Hitachi 7200 RPM drive in my MacBook Pro along with 4GB of RAM. To be able to run Vista and XP at the same time as OS X.
It’s rather easy to do, there are instructional videos at OtherWorld Computing.
http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/installation_2.cfm
Write the instructions down in the correct order of behavior as to not to make a mistake later.
Some tips!
You will need (If I remember right) a #6 torx screwdriver (Sears/Craftsman), some micro phillips-head screwdrivers, tweezers, a green like mat to see the fallen screws and a way to keep each batch of screws separate as you remove them for later installation. There are different types even though they appear to be the same.
Note: Opening the MacBook Pro past the torx screws located in the memory area will most likely void your warranty. So do it very carefully and don’t strip the screw heads with the wrong screwdriver/torx drivers.
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