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 - Nearly idealI'm not even going to bother explaining the usefulness of VMWare, there are plenty of reviews doing just that and doing it well... Parallels vs VMware I've used both Parallels and VMware Fusion, each have their positives and negatives. For instance... Parallels 3 can boot off windows in on a USB drive VMware cannot (nor can windows) Parallels 3 can boot off non-bootable eSATA ports. VMware cannot Parallels 3 can populate Mac with Windows applications so you can set "Open WIth Prefs" to a Window application in OS X to an application Virtual Machine and from the . VMware cannot. VMware can boot 64-bit XP. Parallels cannot. VMware can use two cores. Parallels cannot. Both support integrated Application windows that allow one to virtually "Hide" the Windows Desktop so Apps appear to be more seemless. However for the most part VMWare is faster and more robust lacking a few of the annoying glitches that inhibited the usefulness of Parallels. Parallels often would glitch on direct drag and drop from Mac to PC desktop and would require an Application restart to allow this functionality to return. Notably VMware is noticeably faster, on my Mac Pro, with plenty of cores to spare, the dual processor functionality is a no-brainer. For non-gamers such as myself, VMware Fusion's "Good enough" performance is to forever say goodbye to BootCamp reboots. Rating: - Works like it says!!This product installed very easily and works seamlessly with ALL my Peripherals and MAC programs including the Bluetooth mouse. I'm running on an Airport wireless network with a wireless printer. Rating:  - Mixed FeelingsI tried this product for a business project where I needed to use Windows XP & Vista. The system I used was an iMac Penryn Intel Core2Duo 2.8GHZ, 4GB Ram, 500GB Hard Disk, OS 10.5 Leopard. Installation was easy, but neither operating system would stay activated. Each time we started it up it would require reactivation. We own our licenses, but if we have to reactivate each time we start the virtual machine, it becomes annoying and also raises red flags to Microsoft. Support seemed non-existent. When we actually did get support it was almost a week after we submitted the claim. We ended up returning this to Amazon and used an actual PC instead for the project. Rating: - VMware Fusion + RAM = Perfect MacBookPurchased this along with 4BG of RAM for my Black MacBook. Installed Windows XP as the "Virtual Machine". Everything works flawlessly. Now I have my Mac and my favorite Windows programs all in the same place! Very VERY useful. For those that don't know. This software "tricks" Windows XP into thinking it is installed on it's own computer. In reality, Windows XP is installed on the Mac Hard Drive. So when you start VMWare, it starts Windows XP in its own Mac window. You even see the Windows XP startup dialog! So imagine running XP in a Window with Mac OS X and you have the idea. You can also run the XP (or Vista, or whatever) operating system "full screen". The best way to have the best of both operating systems. Rating: - Fusion operates excellentlyAs a former Virtual PC user (slow and buggy doesn't even begin to describe how that program works), I was delighted to find a beautiful integration of windows functionality into the Mac OS. I tried all three available for Core Duo chips and found Fusion to be fastest, most flexible, and least buggy. When I tried loading one of my behemoth data processing programs onto Parallels, not only was it slow, the graphics were choppy and often undecipherable. Crossover is limited in what I can put in there and currently does not support xml programs, the new standard. I use crossover still because it runs the programs without opening up a virtual windows program. But my mainstay is Fusion as I can open ebooks made with windows only programs, run my 5 or six important data processing programs and move data back and forth across platforms. I also found accessing all the information on the mac part of the drive easier on Fusion than on Parallels, but maybe I didn't try hard enough. The mac drive shows up under "My Computer" and you're in. I can download anything into OSX and access it later in the fusion window. It makes my workday less complicated. All in all, this is an excellent product. I can't think of any downsides as I haven't bumped into problems yet and I use this product daily.
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