A Look at Mac Hypervisors: Parallels Desktop 9 & VMware Fusion 6

Macs offer a number of benefits, but for many Windows users, it’s Apple’s top-rate design that helps seal the deal when pondering a new PC. But, a problem arises: What about those Windows apps? What if you don’t want to go the Boot Camp route? Fortunately, with Parallels Desktop 9 and VMware Fusion 6, two excellent alternatives exist.

I have been a huge proponent of virtualization for quite some time. However, up until recently, my only actual experience with the concept of virtualization at home was with test bed type setups. I would run VMware Workstation on my desktop, and whenever a new Linux distro would come out, I would play around with it in a virtual environment rather than take the time to either reboot into a live version, dual-boot, or setup a completely different machine.

Testing in this fashion has always been a very simple way for me to use to do just that… to test. I still have Workstation installed on my desktop and keep up-to-date when new versions are released. However, for the past 18 months, I have been using a Mac for my work provided notebook. Once the learning-curve passed, I enjoyed a smooth computing experience. For what I do in my day-to-day, I can honestly say that the switch to OS X was the right choice to make. But, I digress.

While I still run a PC at home, my Mac has proven extremely valuable – but every so often I need my Windows fix. If I need to test a particular scenario out, or help a customer with their issues on a Windows box, I was originally dead in the water, trying to assist from memory or test when I got home. After a bit of thinking, the choice was an obvious one. I pulled out an old trick and decided that virtualizing both Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 was the right move.

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