The folks over at Ars Technica recently put Parallels 8 against VMWare Fusion this week and found that there isn’t much of a contest between the two virtualization software programs. In seemingly every category that was tested, Parallels 8 outdid VMware. In fact, Parallels 8 not only did provided better performance but also adds full support for Retina displays and dictation among other features that VMware did not include.
The overview to take away from the comparison for those of you who might be interested:
Neither Parallels Desktop 8 or VMWare Fusion 5 are loaded to the gills with new features, so the PD8 update from version 7 is only a must-have if you are looking for Windows 8 or retina MacBook support in Windows 7 or 8. If you need retina support, this is your best option since Parallels did the extra work and made it a better retina experience than in VMWare Fusion 5. The Mountain Lion dictation and experimental DirectX 10 support show that, while Parallels tends to have more frequent paid updates and a higher price-tag, they try to earn the extra value with well thought out features and engineering. Apart from the bugs I saw in Mountain Lion 8, I think Parallels Desktop 8 earns that extra cost with its solid performance, far superior Linux OpenGL support, and existing feature set. But if your needs are more big-business-oriented, VMWare Fusion 5 Pro might be more your thing.
Source: Ars Technica
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