Thanks.

Conversion of my 15GB drive image took about an hour. Final result? Everything’s working, though WinXP is demanding I ‘reauthorize’ it since it believes it’s running on new hardware.

Graphics performance seems better on my original white Macbook (2ghz, 2GB Ram). I’ve not run any timed tests, but in general useage application launch times & runtimes feel about the same. (I use XP for software development, running Visual Studio 2008 & Oracle 10g)

Gotta agree with Rick, support from both Parallels and VMWare leaves much to be desired.

Why did I choose Parallels over VMWare? Feature-wise, it’s about the same as Fusion. In the end it came down to one thing: Familiarity. I’ve been using Parallels Desktop for over a year and it feels comfortable. Wish I had a better reason than that.

I have to say that I prefer Paralles much better than Fusion. They both were easy to install and get Windows installed on the macbook Pro, but Parallels seemed to work the best for me. Still getting used to the mac system, but right now, still like Windows better.

Before writing a shuch review please learn the documentation and applications itself. Both applications have Preferences & Settings where you can specify many options. Just try and you will see the truth.

Good look!

NEITHER VMWare or Parallels provides real support. VMWare gives you “free web access for 30 days” and Parallels gives you, if I remember correctly, some limited web contact, but points you to their fora, etc.

They both want to sell you their “per incidence” support (taking a page from Mother Microsoft…)

I had HORRIBLE time with Parallels: 3.0 wouldn’t launch in my OS X Leopard, and during install requested “address for ethernet networking card”. To some this may have been the equivalent of asking my name, but to me, I pored through the manual and came up blank. I solicited support from Parallels website, and NEVER HEARD BACK. Of course, they don’t provide an email address in the web support function (nor a “CC” line), so I have no copy of my request.

Time passed, I focused on other things, and when I finally revisited the issue, I did find a Customer Service number to call (bluffing my way past the requests for my “support license”). I was told to upgrade to 4.0 and all problems likely solved… but they only gave me a “trial” activation key. (I learned it was only a trial AFTER I installed Windows XP, so now, I have my “single user” licensed XP sitting on a virtual machine I can’t access.)(They were offering a “free upgrade to 4.0 for 3.0 users” but only if you bought your [defective?] copy of 3.0 after a certain date.)

So, it was “pay us again if you want to run the program you bought” or…

I’m going to try (as in trial) VMWare, but I’m more than anxious that their support is using the same “buyer beware” [bef***ked?] model.

Has the world simply capitulated to software sellers? (Ever try to buy a non-Mac computer without Windows installed? I was going to simply go buy a machine and upload Windows XP, but silly me, I could find no such thing…)

VMware support did finally provide an answer to my question about using VirtualPC in a Fusion VM, this may be useful for some people:

“VPC 07 will install in the XP virtual machine, but it will not operate properly. It will not see available resources correctly and most virtual machines will fail to start.

Global Support Services
VMware Inc.”

At least they did finally reply. I’ve yet to receive any communication from Parallels at all although it is good to see Leto offering help.

SOLUTION
For anyone who want to use Microsoft’s VirtualPC images to test websites with different versions of IE, I’ve found a solution. It’s a guide on how to find and use an open source command line software which will convert Microsoft’s .vhd files to .vmdk files with run on Fusion. There’s also a solution for VirtualBox.

Be sure to read all the comments as some contain corrections to the original post:

http://blog.mozmonkey.com/category/software/

Hope this is useful to someone

If there are any user-related questions anyone has, please feel free to e-mail me at Leto@Parallels.com and I’ll get them answered for you.

Thanks for the info. I’ve seen the thread you linked to already, so I’ve been playing with trial versions of both Fusion 2 and Desktop 4 since posting – as you suggested. Bit of a problem in that Vmware Converter will not convert my existing Win XP install to a VM image so am purchasing a copy of Windows to test (I’ll need it anyway for the MBP which is arriving).

There’s also another option I thought of: run MS VirtualPC 2007 on a VM image of WinXP. That way the VirtualPC images don’t have to be converted at all. Somethign to try at least.

One final point/rant: you’ll have gather I’ve not much experience of virtualisation, it’s a new subject to me.

I’ve contacted Vmware with pre-sales questions and posted in their forums. I have to say that their support/attitude is not great. Forum response was just some condescending post about searching the forums before posting (which I did). Pre-sales question to VMware direct was just answered by referring me to the forums.

VMware should realise that their in a war with Parallels. Their product may have the slight edge but as more people switch to Mac or (as us) upgrade from PowerPC to Intel machines, there will be more demand for virtualisation from people with little knowledge. Can VMware really afford to treat prospective customers like this? What will aftersales support be like?

I’ve asked Parallels the same pre-sales question and so far no reply at all. Early days yet so maybe it will change.

Footnote: on the positive side, it does underline how friendly the Mac community is in general. Thanks again Darrell for taking the time to answer my question as well as you could.