Should I use VMWare or Parallels for Windows?

[AubreyL]

I just bought a Mac Pro, my 2nd Mac to compliment my MacBook Pro. The different is this Mac Pro is replacing my Windows Desktop. Since I'm going to be using one of the internal drives as a server drive for my home network I don't want to use Boot Camp since I don't want to have to reboot.
My question, which of the virtualization products should I go with? For Windows I don't use it heavily. I don't do much gaming and just use a few programs such as QuickBooks, a couple other accounting programs, and I also burn some DVD's and CD's on it. I assume this won't require heavy use and with 6GB of memory memory shouldn't be an issue. For now I plan to use just Windows XP but if Vista ever gets more stable I will switch to it. At the office they also have some Linux machines and my husband wants to set up a Ubuntu Linux machine so someday we could even have Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Linux machines.
I have read so much both ways of which to go with and it seems it all depends on when the last one was updated but I also don't want to go with one just to switch soon so am wondering if one is more safe and future proof.

 

[dvd]

If you're looking at a Mac-only solution, then it's probably six of one, half a dozen of the other.. they're pretty much the same.

However, VMware allows you to run virtual machines on top of Linux and Windows as well... in fact, the equivalent of VMware Fusion on those platforms is VMware Server, which is FREE! You can move your VMs between platforms, and they have a big repository of pre-built virtual machine images to explore. Also, VMware is what you're going to see in a corporate environment, so if you're in a field where building that experience would be a benefit, that might be an influence.

If none of those things matter, then you're back to whatever's cheaper.

Edit: Oops, I see that you can now get Parallels Workstation for Windows and Linux and they have a repository as well. The two prods are getting more and more alike every day!

 

[Domofloge]

They are pretty much the same. Honestly, if I had both installed on my Blackbook, and you un-installed one; I would be completely happy with the one that was left!