VMware Fusion 3 (Upgrade) or Parallels Desktop 5 Mac (Retail)

I don’t know. I don’t know what to do. I have VMware Fusion 2 installed on my iMac, which actually runs just fine and has some great features, but to use the latest additions (especially regarding Snow Leopard) I would need to buy the upgrade to VMware Fusion 3. But: I’m not sure, if I’d still want to stick with VMware’s Fusion or maybe migrate to Parallels’ new Desktop 5.0 for Mac. There are several reasons for migrating, but also quite some for staying at VMware.

On the one hand, VMware seems to me, especially when running Windows as Guest OS way slower than Parallels. At least from what I’ve tested it seems to be having way more disk I/O and by that produce a heavier load to the Mac. Parallels on the other hand seems to be better performing, but yet it still looks like it’s mostly just “hacked together”. It doesn’t integrate that smooth with my Mac and permanently keeps my Firewall asking me whether to allow its daemons to receive connections. VMware’s look-and-feel is just way better than Parallels’.

On the other hand again, VMware’s Fusion doesn’t provide an iPhone App, what’s definitely a Plus for Parallels. But VMware then again provides me with kind of a virtual appliance store, where I can find pre-installed VMs – many even for free.

Update: So, I’ve just installed Windows 7 on both virtualization-solutions now. The average time for installation was approximately the same and even the performance is not such a big difference. What I’ve noticed: VMware is slower in rendering the Aero-effects while Parallels is slower in disk I/O-related things. I can’t really proof this, it’s just a feeling I get when using the VMs.

Huh, I don’t know. Any comments? I would like to see some in-detail 1:1-comparizon between Fusion 3 and Parallels Desktop 5 Mac, although I don’t think I’ll find something like that…

Update #2: Now, I’ve also installed the latest openSuSE 11.2 on both and was astonished by Parallels’ speed for copying, unpacking and installing 2.8GB of RPMs within around 11 Minutes. I guess the I/O argument isn’t valid any longer now. Hm…

Update #3: Parallels somehow still totally disrupts my workflow. I’ve just booted a Windows Vista VM (pure pain, yes) and Parallels Desktop 5 Mac immediately started to ask me to install its tools. I clicked later and right after the dialog disappeared a new one popped up, that told me something about the VM/Mac profile-synchronization. I clicked on the red X, since I just wanted to test something quick within Vista. Regardless of my intend to dismiss the procedure, Parallels logged me out of my Windows Vista session, so I had to log in again. Again, the profile-sync dialog appeared – I didn’t touch it anymore. Some seconds later a new dialog appeared, that was telling me that Parallels placed some Windows folder right within my Dock – and I was like “WTF?!”. Ouff…