Can either product be run from an external hard drive? I have a 1st Gen MacBook Pro and would prefer not to use up a big chunk of my 80GB hard-drive for the Windows partition.

Like many switchers, myself a former Microsoft Certified engineer, I too ran Windows in a virtual machine upon first switching to the OS X platform.

I do feel however that unless someone has a must-run app then they should try and ween themselves off Windows and run OS X based apps if only to free system resources.

Today, more than when I switched, there are many, many apps that can duplicate any functions, and in many ways better them than any Windows app out there.

Its time to let go and move on.

Yes, I store my Paralells guest OS's on my external drives, although the Parallels app is stored on the main drive for speed and convenience mainly.

I own both Parallels and VMWare. With every new VMWare release I try using it. I really want to like VMWare, since it can run OS X Server and supports Linux a lot better than Parallels. However, Parallels still feels a lot smoother & generally nicer when running Windows (I use XP, not Vista).

Parallels will start up automatically in Coherence, but VMWare still has problems switching in and out of Unity. With Fusion 2.0 I've seen the VMWare tools quit several times which would make it unable to switch to Unity without rebooting Windows. The main application I use in Windows is Visual Studio Team Server for source control. I check out source to my Mac's home folder which I map as a shared drive under Windows. Parallels will let me check out to it with no problems, but every version of Fusion, including 2.0, has always given some error when checking out files.

Even with the latest version, Parallels' Coherence still looks a lot nicer and feels more natural than VMWare's Unity. With VMWare I often see redraw problems, plus it won't switch to Unity until after it finishes booting and VMWare tools start up.

I thought about switching and VMWare just is not as intuitive to parallels.. admittedly I've been a parallels user since b3 but version 5008 does very well in XP and office 2007.

For the comment on migrating away from windows I reply.

Excel on the mac (any manufacturer) can't hold a candle to Excel 2007

Is it possible to run, say, OSX 10.4 or 10.6 virtually under 10.5 using Fusion or Parallels Desktop?
[I'm a developer, so I'd find that very useful.]

Quote

Guest wrote:
Is it possible to run, say, OSX 10.4 or 10.6 virtually under 10.5 using Fusion or Parallels Desktop?
[I'm a developer, so I'd find that very useful.]