Parrallels Linux on Ubuntu vs VirtualBox. Comparison? 3

In a nutshell, if you’re thinking about playing with Parallels, go ahead, but don’t delete your VirtualBox partition to make space for it or you’ll be disappointed.

Introduction to VM Needs

My Mac buddies love Parallels. It allows them to use a browser they hate ( IE7 ) to spend time they don’t have making their sites work for idiots who still use Microsoft products. So when I saw the announement that it was in the Ubuntu repos I hit it straight away.

I have XP and Vista vms under VirtualBox, and, like my Mac buddies do occassionally use them for IE7 testing, but also use IE7 to access QuickBooks Online. Yes, IE6 under Wine can do it, but with heavyness of the QB interface that feels like pulling teeth.

Comparing Parallels and VirtualBox

There really isn’t a comparison. With the same Vista Install, VirtualBox runs smoothely, boots quickly and acts elegantly. With an allocated 512mb, VirtualBox skips along and Parallels flounders. Parallels 5 minute boot includes a 2 minute limbo of “has it crashed or not”, pummelling the entire system so hard that other applications crawl to a halt too. top reveals a pretty constant 30-80% CPU usage by Parallels even when it’s not doing anything.

Parallel Issues with Compiz

Did Canonical Test this thing? With Compiz now standard out of the box with Ubuntu, incredibly, you can’t use Parallels efficiently with Compiz switched on. With Compiz as your display manager, black in a Parallels application becomes transparent! Even setting your linux desktop background to black doesn’t stop it from making a mess of the guest OS’s own overlapping windows. Yuck.

Comparison of Mouse integration

Both vBox and Parallels do a decent job of providing plugins to make mouse movement seamless between parent and child OS.

Other comparisons

Why bother? Horrificly slow boot time during which your machine locks up, high CPU usage, and unusable display - what else is there to talk about?

Until these issues are fixed, then this is a no-go.