ParallelsandVMWareare lock in an arms - race . Both trafficker make software that enable you to go Windows on your Mac . They ’ve been adhere in a pap - for - sleaze release bicycle for years now : Every twelve month or so , one of them releases a new version of its software with a crowd of whizzy new feature . Some days or week afterwards , the other one releases its own new reading — usually with many of the same young features .
It ’s just happened again . Parallels recently release Parallels 7 . And now VMWare has releasedFusion 4 . We ’ll be hire in - depth looks at both apps soon . But at first glance the differences between the two seem to be wafer thinly .
Like Parallels , VMWare is is heavily touting its new edition ’s Lion - friendliness . For example , both programs have long allowed Windows apps to run in windows of their own , just like veritable Mac apps . VMWare Fusion 4 — like the new version of Parallels — updates this characteristic so Windows apps can appear on an individual basis in Mission Control and Launchpad ; those apps can also be run full - screen . Both of the programs now allow you to run Lion itself as a practical machine .
The similarities go on from there : VMWare , like Parallels , claims to have made it easier to install new virtual machine . Like Parallels 7 , nuclear fusion reaction 4 comes with puppet for migrating an live Windows installation from a PC to a Mac . Both companies adduce benchmarking turn that prove their app is the immobile , and both say their interfaces are orchard apple tree - ier than the other ’s . Both programs permit you watchword - protect your practical automobile . And on and on it goes . The two updates even brag the same number of novel features . ( “ More than 90 , ” claim both vendors . )
With two products that are so exchangeable , price is bound to be a point of competition . VMWare Fusion 4 is coming out with a special prefatory price of $ 50 , good until the end of 2011 ; after that , it ’ll go up to $ 80 . Not to be outperform , Parallels has just announced its own special : While Parallels 7 too unremarkably sells for $ 80 , current VMWare Fusion customerscan buy itfor $ 30 ( upon submission of a valid licence key ) .
