Originally published in the Smoking Apples Magazine, Issue 2 (December 2008). Free PDF direct download.
In the pre-Intel era, virtualization on the Mac was a disgrace. One had to use Microsoft VirtualPC which was slow and sluggish, like the rest of what comes out of Redmond.
The virtualization space is currently dominated by two big names, Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion. Both have been recently updated, and boast of features and speed improvements. When I started this review, I knew I would have to go through a lot of pain. Installing Windows is not something I particularly enjoy, and having to do it multiple times was going to be a nightmare. Or at least I thought it would be. Keeping the chatter down to a minimum, here’s my story on using both these virtualization apps.
Installation
No, I’m not talking about installing the app, but installing Windows. I’m pleased to report that both these apps did splendidly when it came to installing Windows. Much easier than installing it on a PC.
Featuring wizard driven installations, you can either choose from your optical drive, or select a disk image. You then enter in your name and serial number, and hit install. It is as simple as that. Both the apps take care of your settings and dialog boxes that might throw themselves up. After about 30 minutes, you are presented with a fully set up Windows that you can begin to use immediately. Kudos to both the teams on this one.
Both the apps also feature importing tools should you choose to jump from one virtual machine to another. In fact, I imported Paralells’ Virtual Machine (VM) into Fusion and imported Fusion’s VM into Parallels. They both worked just fine. You can also use a Bootcamp partition if you have that going on.
User Interface
Both the apps feature a sort of invisible mode, where the desktop disappears leaving only it’s windows behind. Parallels calls it Coherence and Fusion calls it Unity. But we’ll back up a bit there. I’d like to talk about the UI of the windowed mode.
Both apps feature very similar UIs. You would almost think that someone copied someone. The icons are placed in similar locations, and even the window elements are similar in size. In fact, I had to sometimes look at the OS X menubar to see which VM I was using (yes, I had both of them open at times).
I noticed a few things that each of them did better than the other. For instance, the Suspend mode in Fusion puts a big Play button while Parallels puts the resume button in the toolbar. Similarly I find Parallels’ toolbar icons better chosen than Fusions. These are petty things that don’t matter much, but if they do matter, I’d say Parallels has a slightly better UI.
Coherence vs Unity
This is one of the stunning features of both these apps. They make Windows disappear! The dock becomes the taskbar, and you can use your OS X task switcher to switch between windows.
Here again there are just slight UI differences that don’t make much of a difference. Parallels puts a start button in your dock while Fusion lets you access all your apps from your menubar. Parallels puts your recent, now running, and favourite apps in the menubar, while Fusion doesn’t have so many options there. Parallels even goes so far as to put its taskbar icons like volume control and MSN messenger in your OS X menubar! Okay so while I’m not a big fan of Windows stuff in my menubar, that is very functional.
Any time you need to access disks, launch new apps, or shut down your machine, you just have to click the app icon in your Dock. Here again, both are equally functional, although I’d give a slight edge to Fusion.
Application Support
The only reason you would want to run either of these two is to access applications right? In this review I installed dozens of apps, and they worked just fine. I tried out Microsoft Office 2007, Photoshop CS2, Safari for Windows (why?), Yahoo messenger and a few others I found lying around on my PC hard drive. Everything worked just fine. For the review we also took a look at some of the gaming situation on the virtualization space, the report of which is presented by gamer Andy Bewernick in a following post.
Performance
This is what it comes down to. On my test system, I can say that both VMs worked just fine. I didn’t notice any major slowdowns on the rest of my system, not were any of the virtualized apps sluggish. I could work with Office 2007 in great speed, and instantly switch to Safari in Mac OS X without delays. However, one has to be faster than the other, and in this case it is definitely Fusion.
The difference is not terribly obvious, but I could feel the speed difference in things like moving around windows, resizing them, launching apps. There was a huge difference in speed timings when one resumed a VM from suspend mode, with Fusion’s VM resuming almost in 4 seconds while Parallels took 15 seconds. However, all is not so rosy around here.
Fusion’s VM took up 800MB of memory, while Parallels took up 600MB. This meant that the rest of my Mac had more memory to access while either of these VMs were running. Parallel’s suspend mode completely removes the VM from memory, while Fusion’s suspend mode leaves the VM consuming around 100MB of memory. However, when it comes to actual usage, I didn’t find Fusion slowing down my system in any way. Safari launched just as fast when Fusion was running as it did on Parallels. And 100MB is what most apps consume when idling. So Fusion has definitely got it right.
Security
Parallels offers a 1 year subscription to Kaspersky Antivirus, and Fusion has a similar scheme with McAfee. I didn’t try any of the antivirus applications, but I assume they work just fine. Note that you will need the Antivirus only to protect your Windows VM, as your Mac is still immune to virus attacks.
Another feature of both these apps is that they allow you to save states of your VM, which you can roll back to later on. So if you find that something has gone corrupted, a rollback is just a click away.
Little annoying things
Parallels is buggy is all I can say. The 4.0 release has been causing widespread issues with many, and I myself noticed many of them. I found it would suddenly freeze up sometimes, refuse to launch a certain app, and in most cases the Start Menu would refuse to pop up in the dock. Moving in and out of Coherence fixed that Start Menu bug, but it was annoying is what it was. I wouldn’t say it is unusable, as the issues were very rare and in between, but it was a bit unnerving and windows-like. These are of course just some bugs that will eventually get fixed, as I did notice a smoother experience with the latest Parallels update.
Fusion on the other hand has been perfect so far, with absolutely no slowdowns or glitches. It didn’t crash out on me even once during my use.
My virtualization advice
Looking at the simplicity and ease of use with which you can operate Windows apps inside OS X, I can honestly say that this is virtualization has reached its prime. The integration between Windows and Mac has become seamless. I mean, you can actually double click an exe file in Finder and it will open up right there in your dock! I am truly amazed by both these apps, and in my opinion both of them are winners. However, due to some unwritten rule, there can only be one winner, and with that rule in mind, I’ll choose Fusion.
Fusion edges out against Parallels when it comes to Price, Performance and usability, which are what matter the most. Parallels only wins when it comes to a slicker UI, which is not something that holds much weight. Fusion’s drivers are more compatible and right now it is less troublesome than the slightly buggy Parallels. I would also say that both provide a better Windows e-XP-erience than on a regular PC.
Besides choosing either of these, you should also make sure you upgrade your RAM to the maximum your system offers, as memory plays a big role. They ran fine on my Mac, but I could have done with another 2GB on board. Last but not the least, remember that the best experience running Windows, is not running it at all.
). This volume can be booted from or opened in a VM and I have had no problems with it.
