Parallels or Fusion on M2MAX

[ARengineering]

Hello all,

I just bought a MBP M2max 32GB.
Now I need to run windows also on this MBP.
In the passed I used Fusion 11.5.7.

But what will run better on a M2 MBP Fusion or Parallels.

Fusion you have a free version and a paid version.
Will the free version sufficient?

Parallels has Home, Pro and Business version.
I prefer to use the Home version as it doesn't have an annual license.
But what are the limitations (I heard that the Home version as a limited RAM assignment of 8GB? or example).

BR

 

[bogdanw]

In my opinion, the free version of Fusion is good enough.
Use w11arm_esd2iso to get Windows 11 ARM from Microsoft.

"w11arm_esd2iso - a utility to create Windows 11 ARM ISOs from Microsoft ESD releases"
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/V...-create-Windows-11-ARM-ISOs-from/ta-p/2957381

Free Personal Use License for VMware Fusion https://customerconnect.vmware.com/en/evalcenter?p=fusion-player-personal-13

 

[jabbawok]

+1 for the free version of VMWare Fusion. Parallels keeps nagging you to install their bloat and they wont even sell you a perpetual licence any more, you gotta rent it. Also if you want to run intel stuff you can set yourself up a little ESXi server and its all the same interface.

 

[gilby101]

Fusion you have a free version and a paid version.
Will the free version sufficient?

The free and lowest paid versions are the same software (on Mac) so no difference in functionality. The licenses and support are different. Do you qualify for free (personal, non-business use)?

But what are the limitations (I heard that the Home version as a limited RAM assignment of 8GB? or example).

Yes, to 8GB (and 4 vCPU) limit. Pushes you to get the Pro version. See https://kb.parallels.com/en/123296 for comparison.

 

[iMacDragon]

+1 for the free version of VMWare Fusion. Parallels keeps nagging you to install their bloat and they wont even sell you a perpetual licence any more, you gotta rent it. Also if you want to run intel stuff you can set yourself up a little ESXi server and its all the same interface.

Pretty sure they do still sell a perpetual license, at least for light users? But their upgrade cycle is very much designed to push you to the subscription.

 

[HDFan]

Having experienced a major irrecoverable data loss with Fusion a long time ago I avoid it. Based on quick looks at posts here and web reviews it looks as if Parallels is more frequently updated and is the better product in most cases.

 

[VitoBotta]

There is no doubt that between the two, Parallels is the more polished product. It's better integrated with macOS in general, especially for people who use Windows thanks to the "Coherence" mode which makes Windows app look like Mac apps integrated in the macOS UI, instead of having to switch to the VM UI.

Having said that, I stopped paying for Parallels and use VMWare Fusion now on both the M2 Pro mini and the Intel MBP. At the moment I use it only with Kali Linux for pentesting work.

VMWare Fusion free version works well enough for me.

 

[ChrisA]

Having experienced a major irrecoverable data loss with Fusion a long time ago I avoid it. Based on quick looks at posts here and web reviews it looks as if Parallels is more frequently updated and is the better product in most cases.

No backup? DOn't blame VMware. You have to back up your data with a VM just as if it were a "real" computer.

You should be able to recover even if an asteroid falls from the sky and smashes your house into a smoking creator. It is not hard or expensive to set yourself up to be "asteroid proof" and after you do your system will also be resilient to less catastrophic things like user errors and software bugs.

An easy way is to have the VM keep its data on a folder that is shared by the Mac. This way the VM does not hold any data at all. You are always free to trash it and rebuild it.

 

[BigMcGuire]

No backup? DOn't blame VMware. You have to back up your data with a VM just as if it were a "real" computer.

You should be able to recover even if an asteroid falls from the sky and smashes your house into a smoking creator. It is not hard or expensive to set yourself up to be "asteroid proof" and after you do your system will also be resilient to less catastrophic things like user errors and software bugs.

An easy way is to have the VM keep its data on a folder that is shared by the Mac. This way the VM does not hold any data at all. You are always free to trash it and rebuild it.

This freaks me out. I copy my Parallels (120GB+) file to an external SSD every few days and then every week to a 4TB spinner. I would not be doing well if I lost that. lol.

I sometimes move my Parallels file between two laptops so have been considering putting it on an NVME drive...

 

[chrfr]

This freaks me out. I copy my Parallels (120GB+) file to an external SSD every few days and then every week to a 4TB spinner. I would not be doing well if I lost that. lol.

I sometimes move my Parallels file between two laptops so have been considering putting it on an NVME drive...

Like any other data, you need to back up your virtual machine data too.

 

[Yebubbleman]

I don't think VMware Fusion has been officially blessed by Microsoft for Windows 11 for ARM64 in the way that Parallels Desktop was, but I can't imagine that isn't a safe inevitability at this point.

Personally, I've never been a fan of Parallels. And VMware is king of virtualization in markets well beyond Apple.

 

[HDFan]

No backup? DOn't blame VMware. You have to back up your data with a VM just as if it were a "real" computer.

I blame VMware because their datafile got corrupted and their snapshots were corrupted as well so that recovery wasn't possible. A complete OS install from scratch was required. This is the only total OS failure that I have ever had over way too many machines, OS's and years.

But yes I had backups of my program data.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I blame VMware because their datafile got corrupted and their snapshots were corrupted as well so that recovery wasn't possible. A complete OS install from scratch was required. This is the only total OS failure that I have ever had over way too many machines, OS's and years.

But yes I had backups of my program data.

I always wondered about that... I know Parallels has a snapshot feature too but having worked with Windows my entire life, I realize that once corruption happens, you're kinda SOL so does it just snapshot the corruption? Interesting.

I recently lost my 12+GB Outlook PST to corruption due to W11 and Outlook - thankfully everything is in O365 so I'm good but good grief, it's 2023... lol.

 

[splifingate]

Having experienced a major irrecoverable data loss with Fusion a long time ago I avoid it. Based on quick looks at posts here and web reviews it looks as if Parallels is more frequently updated and is the better product in most cases.

Seems I was not the only one!

Once bitten; thrice shy.