Two options to run Microsoft Windows applications on Intel-based Macs were updated in the past week.
Parallels Desktop for Mac Release Candidate 2
Earlier versions of Parallels would not run on Intel Macs with more than 2GB RAM. That limitation is gone. And, of course, Parallels can run more than just Windows XP as a Guest OS. Linux, and other OS types run fine in Parallels Virtual Machines.
CodeWeavers CrossOver Mac Beta 2
CrossOver Mac is based on the WINE technology (and not a virtualization solution like Parallels). I had some issues when I tried Beta 1. I’m looking forward to spending some time testing Beta 2 later this week.
I've been using Parallels on my Mac Pro tower since August. The new rev does work quite well; the only thing that still holds me back from using it over boot camp is the lack of USB 2.0 support. I have a portable usb hard drive I use to carry source code back and forth between my work and home machines, and accessing it through a Parallels session is still painfully slow.
One question I haven't been able to find an answer for. Can you run more than two OS's at the same time using Parallels? Or, even better, could you automate the launching of different OS's at different times?
I would love to use a single machine to run automated nightly builds on multiple OS's, but I still can't tell if Parallels will let me do that.
Andrew: Yes, you can have Parallels Desktop for Mac run more than one OS in separate VMs at the same time. Can you automate launching them in some automated fashion to fire up nightly builds? I suppose you could use Automater or some scripting language to do this. But, I have not tried this myself.
Which one seems to be the easier and more stable to use, Paralells or CrossOver Mac