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Is Parallels or VMWare Fusion properly usable as a dev platform?

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    Is Parallels or VMWare Fusion properly usable as a dev platform?

    I updated my i5/8GB Macbook Pro at the weekend with a new 750GB Seagate Momentus hybrid drive. In doing so I ended up putting a clean install of Lion back on (as Paragon Drive Copy messed up the disk partitioning during the image restore killing Bootcamp) and restoring from Time Machine. All works lovely and much speedier than before with its stock 5200 drive.

    Thing is, i'm wondering whether I actually need to put Bootcamp back on it? the only thing I ever boot into Windows for on that machine is VS.NET 2010 and SQL Server so wondering whether I could live with just installing them under Parallels or Fusion.

    I know both of these are well regarded and that VS.NET and SQL will be fine virtualised BUT has anyone actually tried this as a 'proper' working platform or have they become frustrated with something and gone back to the Bootcamp solution for whatever reason?

    So basically, I know it'll work well, but will it work WELL.

    #2
    Originally posted by Durbs View Post
    I updated my i5/8GB Macbook Pro at the weekend with a new 750GB Seagate Momentus hybrid drive. In doing so I ended up putting a clean install of Lion back on (as Paragon Drive Copy messed up the disk partitioning during the image restore killing Bootcamp) and restoring from Time Machine. All works lovely and much speedier than before with its stock 5200 drive.

    Thing is, i'm wondering whether I actually need to put Bootcamp back on it? the only thing I ever boot into Windows for on that machine is VS.NET 2010 and SQL Server so wondering whether I could live with just installing them under Parallels or Fusion.

    I know both of these are well regarded and that VS.NET and SQL will be fine virtualised BUT has anyone actually tried this as a 'proper' working platform or have they become frustrated with something and gone back to the Bootcamp solution for whatever reason?

    So basically, I know it'll work well, but will it work WELL.
    Is it supported under Crossover?

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by stek View Post
      Is it supported under Crossover?
      Didn't know what that was but after looking at it, I suspect not. Both VS & SQL are compex beasts so pretty sure they'd need a 'proper' Windows environment.

      Plus their website is rubbish and keeps crashing on me.
      Last edited by Durbs; 27 February 2012, 16:26.

      Comment


        #4
        I've been running SQL Server and VS.NET under Fusion for the past few years for development, works absolutely fine. As long as you can give the VM enough memory, there will be no issue. Even 2Gb is fine I've found.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by SorenLorensen View Post
          I've been running SQL Server and VS.NET under Fusion for the past few years for development, works absolutely fine. As long as you can give the VM enough memory, there will be no issue. Even 2Gb is fine I've found.
          Cool, Fusion was my preferred choice as is a bit cheaper than Parallels (although have used the Parallels free trials a few times and liked it). Got 8 GB to play with so memory should be ok.

          So you dont use Bootcamp at all?

          Comment


            #6
            No, I've never had to use Bootcamp at all. I've never used Parallels, but heard it is good, I don't think there is much between that and Fusion these days. You'll have no problems with your 8GB RAM, that will be ideal.

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              #7
              I've used VMWare on my Macbook Pro, with VS and SQL Server. I found it to be slow but just about usuable. I spend most of my day in VS2010 and I can really notice the extra speed when running it in bootcamp and win 7.

              Comment


                #8
                Don't forget VirtualBox. Free, so it'll only cost your time to try out.

                I haven't tried it on OS X, but with Windows or Linux as a host, I found it faster than VMware products.
                Last edited by Sysman; 27 February 2012, 18:14.
                Behold the warranty -- the bold print giveth and the fine print taketh away.

                Comment


                  #9
                  I have the 2011 2GHz, i7 MacBook Pro upgraded to 8GB RAM (non-Apple of course). I have had 4 VMWare Fusion VMs running fully at some points, 2x Win7 64bit with 2GB RAM and 2 core allocation each and 2x Win XP with 1GB RAM and 1 core allocation each plus the base Mac OSX build. A few slow downs on the Mac native stuff but then that's expected when you strip away 6 of the 8 available virtual cores.

                  Just make sure that the system has plenty of ventilation as the fans will fairly take on hairdryer speeds with that config running. Also, I'd recommend building really stripped down VM base builds then cloning them for each use.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by craig1 View Post
                    I have the 2011 2GHz, i7 MacBook Pro upgraded to 8GB RAM (non-Apple of course). I have had 4 VMWare Fusion VMs running fully at some points, 2x Win7 64bit with 2GB RAM and 2 core allocation each and 2x Win XP with 1GB RAM and 1 core allocation each plus the base Mac OSX build. A few slow downs on the Mac native stuff but then that's expected when you strip away 6 of the 8 available virtual cores.
                    I've found that I can get away with less memory per VM than I would need for a standalone installation of the same instance. In the context of testing things like client / server setups, that works well; they don't all need to be running at top speed all the time. Windows Server 2008 with AD and a few other bits and bats works quite happily in 800 MB for example.

                    Originally posted by craig1 View Post
                    Just make sure that the system has plenty of ventilation as the fans will fairly take on hairdryer speeds with that config running. Also, I'd recommend building really stripped down VM base builds then cloning them for each use.
                    Much time can be saved by starting with a base installation, making sure its patches are up to date then cloning.
                    Behold the warranty -- the bold print giveth and the fine print taketh away.

                    Comment

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