Hardware

The Best Way to Run Windows on a Mac

By EAN ⋅ August 16, 2007 ⋅  Email this Post ⋅  Print this Post ⋅ Post a Comment

Finding the best way to run Windows has been of particular interest to me since the day I bought my Mac. It can be quite confusion, with Boot Camp, Parallels, the new VMWare Fusion, and even a few free offerings like VirtualBox and Q. But, CNET, a site that I rarely trust for reviews, has compiled an interesting comparison between the most popular ways to get Windows to run on a Mac. And their answer - VMWare Fusion.

Now, I have to take this with respect to where the data is coming from. CNET is, after all, the site that gave Ad-Aware 2007 a perfect 5 star review. However, after sifting through their very difficult to read benchmarks (who the hell uses light gray text on a white background?), it looks like VMWare Fusion really does process somewhat faster than Parallels. A major mark against it, though, Fusion doesn’t seem to provide support for DirectX gaming, a major necessity for some people - possibly giving a bit more marketshare to Parallels.

For me, I’ll be sticking with Boot Camp for now. I rarely run any Windows programs on my MacBook and I’m not interested in shelling out the better part of $100 for either virtualization program until they come much closer to native speeds. In time, maybe, but for now - no.