Needless to say the decision to switch from VirtualBox to Parallels was not an easy one.
For years, I have been a huge VirtualBox fan. Besides the obvious “free” aspect, I like VirtualBox’s simplicity and wide range of support on a multitude of platforms. However, this relationship was not meant to last (at least for me anyway). I’ve finally made the switch and for the most part I am happier. Here are my reasons: First, I am now spending the majority of my time on a Mac and rarely if ever I use anything other than a Mac. Second, Parallels menu, UI, and workflow is much more conforming to the Mac UI design than that of VirtualBox. Because VirtualBox supports Linux, Windows, Mac, and Solaris, the UI design appears to be uniform across all platforms. Therefore, it seems to be less polished than a UI that is designed exclusively for a Mac computer. Finally, Parallels seems to work much better (responsiveness and performance).