Mac Users:VMWare or Parallels?

[Lee]

I know there are some Mac users here. I just switched to Mac after 3 years of being back on Windows. Before I kept a PC for the odd game or Windows program I wanted to run. This time, I am going to run Boot Camp (waiting for my copy of Win 7 64 bit to arrive), but would like to use one of the above for some things. One big thing is using my Garmin watch and associated software so I will need it to access a USB device while in OSX.

Which is better?

[gellar]

Both work pretty well nowadays, but I moved to VMware a long time ago primarily because a) it had better Linux support at the time and b) Parallels used to muck with the Windows hal.dll file to get things to work, which did absolutely have the possibility of going to shit on you.  I think they've stopped doing that.  Still, I've had zero reason to switch to Parallels from VMWare.

[Lee]

Thanks. Some of the reading I have done suggest Fusion used to be better than Parallels, but the latter has come a long way and is even faster now. Still, VMWare sounds like most peoples preferred program.

Also sounds like I need to upgrade from to 8 gigs of memory (only have 4 now).

[gellar]

I wouldn't think you'd need to upgrade.  I'm on 4GB on my MBP now and it works just fine.  Hell back in the day I used 2GB and it still worked OK.

[hitbyambulance]

be sure to try VirtualBox (also free: www.virtualbox.org)

[gangeli]

i thought garmin finally came through with decent mac support?

http://www.garmin.com/macosx/

unless you are using sporttracks i suppose

[ravenvii]

I wouldn't think you'd need to upgrade.  I'm on 4GB on my MBP now and it works just fine.  Hell back in the day I used 2GB and it still worked OK.

be sure to try VirtualBox (also free: www.virtualbox.org)

This and this. VirtualBox is free, so just try it. If you don't like it, then I would personally go for VMware. More stable IMO.

[DonD]

My gamin watch works fine on the Mac (iMac).

I found Parallels to be disappointing in what I could actually run well.

Bootcamp was too time consuming for my taste.

I ended up getting a PC for my kids to use..and my games.