Entries Tagged 'parallels' ↓

In the past, we’ve tried so hard to first use Microsoft products when available to fit a need.  However lately, we’ve come to realize that there are just some products that are better and worth taking a look at.  One of them is VMware.  We’ve been using Microsoft Virtual Server for over two years now.  Microsoft Virtual Server has worked OK, but its not been the best experience.

Recently when we moved our servers over to a new hosting provider and got ourselves 3 new 64 bit Servers with 8 gigs of RAM on each of them, we decided to use VMware Instead. All I can say is WOW, what a difference.  The configuration and performance has been outstanding.  Our development branch down in Mexico has also recently upgraded their servers to VMware too and based on my conversations with them also they love it better and can’t imagine switching back.

This weekend I decided to give VMware Fusion for the Mac a shot on my iMac. In the past I’ve used Parallels and for the most part its been pretty good.  Last Month, one of my clients who happen to be using a Mac and run Windows in Virtualization mode suggested I give VMware Fusion a chance.  My iMac also has Boot camp installed and I’m running WIndows XP (Remember I switched back!).  VMWare has a great feature that I can use the native partition as a Virtual Image.  The performance has been excellent! I get the best of both worlds.  I can run in Virtual Mode while in OSX but still boot into Windows natively if I need to something like requires heavy use of the GPU.   It’s been extremely stable and I would suggest to anyone who is considering Virtualization on the Mac, to take a look at VMware Fusion instead of Parallels.

I purchased a new 15 inch mac book pro from the Apple store this week and I must say I’m more than impressed with the performance! I have Windows running under Parallels Virtual Machine. Running Windows in a virtualization machine has exceeded my expectations.

In the past I’ve used Virtual PC for OS X and the performance was just OK. I really did not use VPC much because the performance was not what I was used to. If the speed is slowing me down (or the perception), I would rather get on another computer and do my work.

However, that is not the case with using Parallels on my new notebook. It’s as fast as running Windows XP on my P4 3.4 ghz desktop. I’m running Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 in VM and the performance is as good or better than my desktop.
I ‘m running a new beta version of Parallels that has improved many issues. They are coming up with more improvement very soon. One that caught my eye is that you’ll be able to run your games in the Virtual Machine and it will take advantage of your graphics card! Now that is impressive!

Based on my brother’s feedback with the amount of memory needed to run the VM and OS X at the same time, I went down Fry’s and bought an other Gig of RAM for $90! The Apple store wanted $300! That’s just nuts! (I’m sure its great memory but its not worth 3 times as much). With 2 Gigs of RAM, this machine is smoking fast!
Now when I am developing I can use Parallels and then with an alt+Enter key stroke, I can be back in OS X, checking email, viewing my RSS feeds and listening to music! (Well I can still listen to the OS X itunes when in the VM also) This is the best of both worlds!

I did use my external firewire drive to install the Virtual Machine. It does seem to be faster than running the VM from the internal hard drive. I’m not sure if this true, but it feels like it. I did this because it will avoid filling up my 100 gig hard drive. The other reason is when I replace my G5 desktop with the new Mac Pro, I can simply hook the external drive to that machine to work on it from home. I still perfer to use a desktop with a large monitor at home instead of a notebook.
I really don’t think Microsoft is going to get hurt by all the people switching to using Mac hardware. I think the company that is fearing these new computers is Dell.

Microsoft is stilling going to make money because people need Windows when they are using Bootcamp or Parallels, but Dell is going to lose people by the fact you can run Windows and OS X on the same machine. Plus Apple computers just look so much cooler!

I doubt there will ever be a time where I’ll have no need to use Windows. With the abilty to run both operating systems on the same machine, it made total sense to finally switch my notebook over to an Apple.

A few months ago my brother was at the Dell cart in the mall and made the bad choice of buying a new notebook. I warned him on the poor quality of Dells lately and how I and many people I know are having problems with Dell computers. I told him he should have bought a new Mac book pro instead. (now that they can run Windows XP via a direct boot or through an emulator)

Within a couple of weeks he was having all kinds of problems with the Dell. We would stop by the Apple store every couple of weeks and I kept rubbing it in that he should have purchased a new Mac book pro.

Last week he purchased the 17 inch Mac book pro. Within a couple of hours he was calling me to tell me how he was blown away by the features that came with his new computer and wish he had made the switch earlier.

He also purchased Parallels, a Windows Emulator for intel computers running OSX. Within a couple of hours he had Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 running. When I came over to see how it ran, I was really impressed! However things were a bit sluggish on the OSX side. The problem was he allocated 600 megs to the emulator and only 300 megs to OSX. I told him to get more memory and things should improve.

He called me today and said he put in an additional gig and he said everything is running the way it should. He allocated a gig to OSX and a gig to Parallels.

I know my next notebook will be a Mac. I still have to pay off this !#$%@ Dell that I hate because I still have a few months left in my lease. I count the days….