Neil Ticktin writes in MacTech of his magazine's testing of two Windows virtualizers for Macintosh computers: Parallels and VmFusion. This class of software lets Apple computers run CAD software that would otherwise be locked to the Windows operating system. (For Linux, the equivalent is known as Wine.)
The testing didn't exactly involve CAD software; games, in fact, and timing the fps rate (frames per second). In all tests, Parallels was faster; in one case, it ran a game when VmWare could not.
The article is eight Web pages long, so here is the link to the conclusion page.
The testing didn't exactly involve CAD software; games, in fact, and timing the fps rate (frames per second). In all tests, Parallels was faster; in one case, it ran a game when VmWare could not.
The article is eight Web pages long, so here is the link to the conclusion page.
Hi Ralph,
Parallels and VMWare Fusion are virtualizers, but Wine is not. Wine is a software layer that allows some Windows apps to install directly and run in Linux. There is no need to install a Windows virtual machine. But due to its nature, Wine cannot run all Windows apps. It's tailored mostly to run office apps and games; apps running flawlessly are few.
Both Parallels and VMWare offer products for Linux. You can also have a look at VirtualBox from Sun, which offers an Open Source Edition, along with a free for personal use and evaluation version which supports more features.
Posted by: Norm C. | Mar 16, 2010 at 10:24 AM
This class of software lets Apple computers run CAD software that would otherwise be locked to the Windows operating system.
I'm not sure from this that you know about the Boot Camp drivers from Apple, which allow you to install Windows as a native boot OS on Intel-based Macs? Very useful in a CAD environment, considering how $$$ from being Microsoft Gold Certified Partners has encouraged a lot of the biggies off being multi-platform in the past decade and more.
Posted by: DF | Mar 16, 2010 at 05:57 PM