The uber geeks

Virtualization Software on the Mac: The Looks

I’ll compare the two virtualization applications for the Mac based solely on looks today. These are the two apps:

VMware Fusion: Fusion is a virtual machine offering by VMware for Macintosh computers with Intel processors. The software is currently in the beta stage of development. The first public beta build became available on 21 December 2006. Fusion allows Intel-based Macs to run x86 operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, NetWare and Solaris in virtual machines at the same time as Mac OS X. #

Parallels Desktop: Parallels Workstation is the first commercial software product released by Parallels, Inc., a developer of desktop and server virtualization software. The Workstation software consists of a virtual machine suite for Intel x86-compatible computers (running Microsoft Windows, Linux or Mac OS X) which allows the simultaneous creation and execution of multiple x86 virtual computers. The product is distributed as a download package for Linux and Windows. On the Mac, the software is branded Parallels Desktop for Mac (see below). #

Let’s get started. This is how VMware Fusion looks:

The first thing I noticed in Fusion, is that the toolbar has huge icons, and text. There is no way to make the icons smaller or to hide the text. In fact, you can’t modify the toolbar at all. There are also a lot of extra icons, like the one for the iSight, those could be in the menu bar, there is no need to have them there, taking up space.

I like the fact that everything is in the toolbar, there are no buttons/icons on a sidebar or at the bottom of the window, it helps a lot to have it this clean. The icons are ugly but it could be worse. Also of note, is that the button to hide the toolbar doesn’t work, so you have to stare at it all the time, unless you go fullscreen.

That’s about it, let’s take a look at Parallels now:

The first thing I noticed in Parallels, is that there is no toolbar, at all. It looks really odd, I mean, every other application on the Mac has a toolbar, why not Parallels?. I assume they figured a sidebar would work better, but well, it just doesn’t. I can’t get used to clicking stuff on that sidebar, it is too complicated and most of the time I aim my mouse wrong and end up clicking on another application that’s on the background.

But whatever, it’s not like we can do anything about it, so let’s look at the icons. You know, I thought Fusion’s icons were shit, but after looking at the ones in Parallels I love them. Seriously, what do they even mean? There is no text, just tooltips if you hover on them. Ok, maybe I can figure out what the “Play”, “Stop”, etc. icons mean, but the ones below? Well it turns out they are for fullscreeen, for coherence, and other things I can’t figure out. Sigh.

But wait! There are buttons on the bottom of the window too!. Ok those are a bit more recognizable, but still, ugly and no text. And they are smaller, there is no consistency in the look or size of the icons in Parallels. There is one thing I really hate, and it’s the fat sidebar. I mean, what the hell? It looks completely off.

Alright, I would have to say VMware Fusion kicks Parallels Desktop’s ass, at least in the looks department. In a few days we’ll take a look at how they both perform.

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