Question: Parallels or VMWare Fusion

There's also the free one - which is virtual box or something.

I have Parallels. I run XP for work 7 hours a day every week day.. it works flawlessly. I also used Parallels for running ubuntu 8.04 for home use (for development).

I have used VMware on windows for running RedHat for work to demonstrate software.

For desktop use I would say Parallels - it follows the "boom it just works" whereas VMware seems more techy (you can get into techy with Parallels too).

Parallels has some restrictions though - currently it only supports a single core. Not a problem with office work but if you're running games it may be.
Parallels offers a nice "cohesive" more and the integration between windows and mac is very good indeed.
With parallels you can even run PC apps as if they were local apps (you have the option to add them to the mac app list) .. it's just when you run them it will boot windows in the background invisibly without having to start it first (it only needs to start one instance).

Other than that the current update has solve the majority of issues.

If you do use Parallels and multiple monitors - be warned that the way it supports multiple monitors is to make effectively a large window over both monitors rather than cope with the monitors being different resolutions.. just something I found a little annoying.

Lastly they're slowly adding DX support in parallels - so you can run old games in the window without having to use BootCamp but I don't use it or my MBP for gaming..

I would also add memory to get to 4GB but that cheap and easy to do with memory from OcUK for example rather than buying Apple's overpriced memory.
 
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What I would suggest when starting out with the Mac..

On the install the comes with it - try all the trial stuff, install all the trial apps you like and then make a list of those you use after a month. You could try both VMware and Parallels..
Use time machine then reinstall Leopard from scratch and install the stuff you use..

I would say that VMware is probably the 'older' of the two. I just found it not as straight forward as Parallels.
 
I have both, but am now sticking with Fusion V2 (even thou its still in beta) as it just seems for me better. Installed XP and Vista today as straight VMs but use Fusion to boot my Boot Camp partition as well which is Vista 64. I also use Fusion to run soon pretty heft test environments up (12 servers etc)
 
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