I just got the opportunity to try out the latest version of VMware and thought I'd do a quick Windows Experience Index on Boot Camp, Parallels and VMware to see what the performance is like before my new MacBook Pro 17" arrives (hopefully on Friday!)

When I installed Leopard on my machine I took the opportunity to carve out a dedicated 20GB partition again to put a fresh install of Vista on. As well as being able to boot natively this also now means I can run my single Windows partition switching between native, Parallels or VMware at will which admittedly drives Windows Activation crazy.

Host machine

Configuration

Testing notes

• No other applications running in OS X or Vista
• Full-screen mode
• Vendors guest OS tools & drivers installed

Scores

Thoughts

Processor: A little surprising given that VMware supports multiple cores but that Parallels doesn't.
Memory: To be expected given that the VM was only running with less RAM.
Graphics: Disappointing and likely caused by the VM vendors graphics drivers not being WDM which based.
Gaming graphics: Very disappointing and caused by lack of DirectX 9 graphics support.
Hard disk: Like processor this is a pleasant surprise.

After my new 17" MacBook Pro arrives (hopefully this Friday) I will produce another set of scores which should show how much faster the 2.6GHz is with all the options and let me compare like-for-like on the memory front.

I also want to run some Visual Studio 2008 build time comparisons (probably of SubSonic) because compilations are what really counts ;-) If you have any further suggestions for benchmarks, leave a comment!

[)amien

Parallels build 1966

This is now a very old build, check out the Parallels Desktop product page for the latest official release.

Parallels have put 'internal build 1966' of their excellent Mac virtual machine (VM) software Parallel Desktop up in their forums.

New enhancements and bug fixes include shared networking, OS installation assistant and various minor other fixes.

Seems solid so far (24 hours).

Creating a virtual disk from a real one

Parallels doesn't support direct access to disk partitions but instead relies on it's own virtual hard-disk-in-a-file system much like other VM solutions.

VMware have made available a Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) tool, currently free and in beta, that works only on Windows but can 'hot clone' systems in use. It supports a number of virtual formats including Virtual PC and Ghost but not Parallels.

Until either Parallels or VMware fill in the missing pieces check out colddiver's solution on the forums.

[)amien

Another round-up of the best Mac OS X software I can find.

Parallels Workstation

Piping Microsoft and VMWare to the post relative unknowns Parallels are on beta 6 of their Parallels Workstation for Mac OS X/Intel.

As well as being able to guest OS/2, DOS, BSD, Solid, Linux and all flavours of Windows their product also features support for Intel's VT virtualisation technology built into the Intel Core chips giving it an edge in performance.

Parallels also offer Windows and Linux versions of their software as well as a virtual disk compressor that works with VMware and VirtualPC as well as their own Workstations products.

They are currently offering the OS X version for $10 off so you can grab a copy for $39.99.

Gmail+Growl

Growl allows other applications to pop-up messages in a very customizable way and is used by the likes of Adium messenger and Colloquy IRC.

This universal app however uses Growl to offer you a sneak preview of your latest Gmail's as they hit your inbox. Yummy.

Uno

I've blogged in the past at just how annoying and inconsistent the Mac UI has become with Aqua, BrushedMetal, Platinum, ProTools, Dashboard and GarageBand UI's all being totally different. There are even variations between those...

Uno lets you choose between Platinum or it's darker iTunes variant for Aqua and/or BrushedMetal apps and be done with it. It's free, fast and easy.

TheftSensor

One of the cool things about OS X is the way Apple build cool features into the OS for application developers to use. Some examples include dictionary/spell-checking, voice recognition, iSight and AppleRemote access, system-level address-books and calendaring...

The result is you find very innovative applications using these features in new and interesting ways. One such example is DeliciousLibrary, another is TheftSensor...

TheftSensor allows you to use your AppleRemote to "lock" you machine just like you would a car with a remote locking fob. Should somebody attempt to move your laptop then an alarm will continually sound until you deactivate it with the remote. This is made possible because of the movement sensor inside Mac laptops put there to protect hard disks in the event of being dropped :)

Remember to pair your remote with your Mac so that other people can't unlock your laptop with theirs.

TheftSensor is free but the the company behind has another more advanced non-free application called Undercover. Install this and should your Mac be stolen notify them and the next time your Mac hits in the Internet it'll realise it's stolen and start sending iSight cam pics of the perpetrator using your PC as well as IP tracking information.

If that doesn't do the trick it starts to simulate hardware failures and then should it find itself on an Apple certified service center IP allocation it'll let the service tech know it's been stolen.

[)amien