Comments on: VMware Fusion 3 to Debut by End of October

By: ScottNYC

ScottNYC — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:56:08 +0000

I just switched to parallels shortly after version 4 because of those benchmarks released showing parallels was actually faster, and in some tests showed it was even faster then bootcamp. When vmware released 2.0.6 I wanted to try it out again but when I went to launch it I got an error telling me to reboot in 32bit mode so I again abandoned it. I sorta feel parallels is ahead of vmware as far as the evolution of virtualization on OSX. I feel like vmware is playing catch up. If you doubt what Im saying about the benchmarks you can even check parallels vs vmware in wikipedia, and everything is explained there, including a side by side comparison of features

By: HD

HD — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:21:53 +0000

I’m looking forward to this update as well. I started with Parallels, but as soon as VMWare released Fusion I switched and never looked back. I don’t have any issues with Fusion and any enhancements are greatly appreciated. I think the new way of displaying the Start menu will finally make me use their Unity mode.

By: Rob Oakes

Rob Oakes — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:01:25 +0000

Oops, I meant to say Workstation and Fusion. This is a good reason why all writing should only happen in the afternoon. I stand by all of the observations though.

By: Chris Wanja

Chris Wanja — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:39:14 +0000

I can not wait to see what VMWare does with this update. I have had to adapt to more of a virtual machine with getting back into the IT world. We have several Mac clients, but of course the majority is still Windows based. Making this faster, more reliable, and just plain ease of use is a major plus.

I have yet to turn a single eye back to Parallels after a rough start with them back in 2007. I used their product for about 3 days before I canned it and ate the cost. Watching the two progress, I can definitely tell that they are geared towards two different goals.

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:18:59 +0000

@Rob Oakes

Workstation and Parallels are not manufactured by the same company, Workstation is done by VMware and Parallels are done by Parallels

By: Rob Oakes

Rob Oakes — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:35:20 +0000

Sounds fantastic. I’ve been a long time VMware user (first on the PC, now on the Mac). While the graphics enhancements will be nice (and who can complain about OpenGL support?), I’m really hoping that they address the performance issues.

Parallels, while an extremely nice product, is slower and much less usable than Workstation (the equivalent for Linux and Windows). I have two laptops that I use regularly, my MacBook Pro and a Dell that runs Ubuntu Linux. Despite being nearly a year older, having half the ram, and a slower processor; Workstation hands down outperforms Parallels. Not only does Parallels feel slower, but it requires about 25% additional time to complete processor intensive tasks (compiling code, running models)

And that’s unfortunate since both Workstation and Parallels are manufactured by the same company. Here’s hoping that the update to version 3 will fix that.

By: J.

J. — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:16:51 +0000

Sounds pretty cool, but virtual box 3 has the direct X as well (Although experimental), and it works pretty well (and its free). Can’t wait to see how the compare.