VM Ware Fusion vs Boot Camp
For the past year I have been running Windows on my Mac using Apple’s Boot Camp in OS X Leopard. After a few months I decided to give Fusion a try since it lets you run a Boot Camp partition as a virtual machine. I felt like I was getting the best of both world - the convenience of booting into Windows from OS X whenever I needed it, or the ability to run Windows at full speed under Boot Camp when I needed it. Over time however I found myself booting using the virtual machine more often and almost never booting into Windows.
About two weeks ago I finally decided to convert my boot camp partition into a full virtual machine under Fusion. This actually had a few benefits, some of which I planned on, some I didn’t plan on. First is the hard drive space usage. When you use Boot Camp you need to choose how much space you would like to devote to Windows and how much to OS X. I overestimated how much space I would really need, and ended up wasting about 10 GB of space in the Boot Camp Partition, almost 10% of my laptop’s capacity, so not a small amount for sure.
That was the intended benefit. The unintended benefit of running windows in a pure virtual machine is the speed of loading under fusion. When you run fusion off a partition you need to boot up the system as well as fully shut down, just as if you were running the system normally. With a virtual machine however, Fusion will let you suspend an active session, allowing you to close out faster and get going faster too since you no longer have to wait for Windows to load. I have also noticed that Apple’s Spotlight search now includes Windows files and applications, and choosing one will automatically launch Fusion for you. Very cool.
Overall I am very happy that I made the switch over to VM Ware Fusion. Being able to boot into Windows while still using my OS X software like Omni Focus and Mail is great. The only real advantage I can see for Boot Camp is the price (free for Leopard users) and the potential speed gains if you need to use Windows for gaming or some other processor intensive programs.
The process for converting a boot camp partition is a little tricky, but not terribly difficult if you are ready for it. Of course back everything up if you can (another reason for using Fusion is a simplified backup of ALL of your data).
I highly recommend watching this video if you plan on making the switch: MurphyMac.com
You can also read the article at the same site (vmware converter)
I hope this helps anyone who is on the fence about trying VM Ware’s Fusion. I think it’s great, and it’s well worth checking out with a free trial.
