In fact, running within Parallels on the MacBook Pro is faster than running on a year-old PC laptop I used to use. Everything works beautifully - no speed issues whatsoever. Within the virtual PC, I run Windows XP, Visual Studio 2003/2005, IIS, SQL Server 2000/2005 and various other apps.
Apple got after them and they immediately changed it-and triggered ungrade links everywhere-but a lot of users just held onto that copy so that they could (for example) install Lion and Mountain Lion onto machines running Snow Leopard and vice versa.I've been using Parallels on a MacBook Pro for about a month and it's fantastic. There was a version of VMWare Fusion a couple of years ago that was accidentally configured to allow various versions of OS X to be installed on Mac-hosted virtual machines.
They won't even let you run Mac OS X on Mac OS X. I would be virtualizing OSX right now on my Windows workstartion(using VMWare WOrkstation) if I could do it on the up and up. You can only run OSX VMs on Apple hardware.
I believe the WP8/Win8 development tools are available for free as an express version. Great review, and I hope you'll consider looking into each VM's Nested VM support in future In my tests, I found the DirectX support went to haywire when using Nested VM, and I couldn't get the network functionality to work in the nested VM (the WP8 emulator).Īs part of a serious OSX VM review, I think reviewing the Nested VM support of both VMs would be a very useful addendum, and specifically, how it related to WP8 development, which I think is the major reason why OSX based developers would need Nested VM support Last I checked Parallels were recommending only using one cpu core in the VM when using the "Nested VM" support. SLAT is used for VM in a VM support, and I know that Fusion and Parallels now have rudimentary SLAT support. Or use Bootcamp, which is a very heavy mode switch This is because if you want to develope Windows Phone 8 software (say to port your iPhone app to WP8), you need to use the WP8 SDK inside Windows 8, and the WP8 SDK makes use of MS' HyperV technology to run the WP8 emulator. One issue that is affecting a lot of OSX based developers (read iOS) is SLAT support in VMs. Thanks for the next instalment in the Parralels vs Fusion review seriesĪs a multi-platform software developer, a good capable VM host is one of our most important tools after the various IDEs Ugggh.Īre there any issues with running Parallels, Fusion and VirtualBox concurrently on the same "mac?" With the advent of 12-core Xeons, a new 12-core MacPro, and potentially 24-core hackintoshes, this could make sense in some situations. I use Parallels and am amazed how well it works overall, given the not too distant past when Connectix/MS Virtual PC was the only viable option.
You have separate environments and duplicative hardware (and software in some cases), and excess power consumption. KVMs are a hassle and switching is annoyingly slow. Nice to read more from Dave beyond the creative content industry.
Autodesk Inventor in my case, which works pretty well under Parallels.Īgreed: great article. I have Windows set up on my Mac using a Boot Camp partition (which both Parallels and VMWare are able to mount and run as VMs) so I can run my necessary software in a VM and I can dual-boot if necessary. You never hear of a Windows user using products like this in order to use a "must have" app on OS X.įor me, being able to keep everything on one laptop is very convenient. A review of a product used to run professional Windows programs on a Mac.
That won't be appropriate for casual users of Windows of course but since the review focused on so many professional graphics applications I am suggesting the above. Since a lot of your professional work seems to be done in Windows, might it not be better to have a separate dedicated Windows workstation and use something like a KVM switch or even just RDP into the workstation?