I'm currently undecided on which to buy. Parallels has DirectX 9 support whilst Fusion only has 8.1, however I won't be able to take advantage of that (realistically) until I get my Macbook Pro sometime this year (Currently have a Macbook). Because Fusion has now become available to pre-order it's awfully tempting as I have one of the betas installed and do have a personal preference for VMWare from the pc version. I have yet to try Parallels, it's something I keep meaning to do. (i'll probably stick the trial on my Macbook when I get home tonight) Here's what I see with each: VMWare Fusion: Good: * DirectX 8.1 support (OpenGL and Direct3D 8.1) * Unity (spiffy) * VMWare (years of VM experience so probably better support for more archs) * AMD64/x86-64 support * $40 if I pre-order now (£20, yay weak Dollar) * Excellent support for non-windows VM's * Support for more than one processor Bad: * DirectX 8.1 support (Where's DirectX 9? And will I have to buy a new version of Fusion if DX9 support is added?) * Lack of snapshot manager (this is what I consider THE killer feature of any VM software, implement this and it's instant purchase) * A pause button, where's the fantastic snapshot manager from workstation? * $80 if I hold back on pre-order * Some overhead when not even running (this has always been a personal gripe of mine with the pc version, vmware adds lots of stuff running in the background when VMWare isn't even running) * Because it's cross platform there is probably some level of middleware/abstraction with VMWare Workstation/Fusion which means it might take up slightly more memory/resources than a written for OS X app only * Cannot run an OS X virtual machine in Fusion (can't VMWare talk to Apple about allowing OS X to run in a VM in Fusion? I would also consider this an instant purchase feature) Parallels Desktop 3.0: Good: * DirectX 9 (Direct3D, no mention of OpenGL so unsure) * Coherence (spiffy) * Dedicated app written for OS X only (possibly lower memory/resource usage) * Parallels Snapshots sounds awfully familiar to "Snapshot Manager" in VMWare Workstation, if this is a similar feature then it's definitely purchase worthy Bad: * Focused primarilly for Windows VM's * Not as wide OS support as VMWare * No AMD64/x86-64 support (I could be wrong on this, there is mention of 64bit support in the "future" version of 3.0 but no actual mention of this support anywhere I can find) * No support for more than one processor * Relatively new to virtualisation * Cannot run an OS X VM in Parallels (can't Parallels talk to Apple about allowing OS X to run in a VM in Parallels Desktop? I would also consider this an instant purchase feature) * I just noticed that Parallels make VM software for Windows & Linux, so they may use some middleware/abstraction as noted in the above point for VMWare Fusion. (alas, this was posted without this one in the VMWare forum) In the grand scheme of things I could buy both, since currently Fusion is essentially £20 and not major money. However, i'd rather not have two VM software solutions on my Mac probably taking up resources when not even running. If I have missed any features or disadvantages of either VM software please let me know so I can add them to the above. (or make corrections, for example i'm unsure of 64bit support in Parallels) I've decided to post this on both the VMWare and Parallels forums. It's the best way to get both opposing camps views and information on the products as far as I can see.
