Is using Parallels harmful for the Mac?

dialabrain wrote:

FWIW, you don't have to use a pre-release version of Windows if you are on an Intel Mac.

You are correct. This is why I said " I would use Boot Camp to install a production version of Windows (if you are not using a silcon version of Mac)."

I did make a spelling error though.

Besides Parallels, there is also:

• VMware Fusion (also a paid product, just like Parallels)
• VirtualBox (free) https://www.virtualbox.org
• UTM https://getutm.app

Of the 4, Parallels seems to devote the most effort to improve their product, but a lot of people like the free aspects of VirtualBox and UTM.

Assuming you mean Parallels Desktop, it will not harm your Mac in the least. Of course creating a VM will take up disk space.

Keith Barkley wrote:

He says nothing about Apple Silicon

No, it's not mentioned. Nor is Intel mentioned.

itseloo wrote:

I actually have the m2 air

FWIW, that means you can only run the ARM64 insider preview of Windows 11 in Parallels. Whether the apps you need will run in it is another question.

If I were in a course of study requiring Windows I would not rely on a pre-release version of Windows running in a virtual machine. I would use Boot Camp to install a production version of Windows (if you are not using a silcon version of Mac).

As a conputer engineering student, you will be learning how to learn how to compose a problem report or compose a technical question.

Rule of thumb for app-related questions is specific hardware involved, and the operating system and app versions involved, minimally.

If the school is a good one, you will be responding to bug reports and pull requests and related within your own apps or within open source apps you might be contributing to, which will give you direct insight into what arriving information is important and in what context for receiving and remediating the reported issues.

Here, useful information includes which apps, and what platforms are those apps available for. You’ll certainly see Windows used, but likely also macOS and Linux, and potentially other platforms. Different apps have different requirements, as do different operating system platforms.

With Apple Mac, the previous-generation Mac systems use Intel x86-64 architecture processors and hardware, while current and newer systems use Apple silicon processors based on ARMv8 AArch64 architecture. You’ll probably also see RISC-V architecture and processors, and potentially others.

Here, which architecture is key to your question, as that will determine what else is possible with this Mac, and how.

Linux and Windows are available using various means for Mac with Intel x86-64 processors. Windows can boot on an Intel Mac using either Boot Camp—Boot Camp is an Apple package that presents the hardware abstraction layer expected by Windows, making an Intel Mac look like a Windows-compliant PC—or through an add-on hardware virtualization package such as Parallels, VirtualBox, or VMware Fusion.

Virtual machines are also sometimes known as hypervisors. Virtual machines or hypervisors virtualize the hardware. (Virtualization of memory, of system hardware, of networking, and of storage, is a key concept in modern computing, and something you will likely learn much more about.)

For direct booting, Linux is just becoming possible on Mac with Apple silicon processors, and Microsoft Windows is available to insiders but is not (yet?) a purchasable and supported product.

Virtual machines mostly work fine, though will require a fair amount of storage for each “guest” of the virtual machine, and also a fair amount of system memory while the vierual machine and operating system “guest” is running. Virtual machines are same-architecture choices, meaning an operating system built for x86-64 hardware will (usually) work as a “guest” on another x86-64 system using a virtual machine. Using an operating system built for x86-64 hardware on an ARMv8 AArch64 hardware will require emulation in addition to virtualization. One such virtual machine with hardware emulation support available for Mac is UTM.

All that out of the way, the key detail here is which platform the necessary apps require. That dictates which operating systems and which architectures, which then leads ro which other options and alternatives are available. Pretty much everything here is driven off the apps involved, and then the associated and app-specific dependencies.

IT is ever-increasing and ever-shifting stacks of abstractions and dependencies, as you’ll come to learn more about.

TL;DR: which apps? What are the operating system and processor dependencies for each app? Then for whether and what configuration might be used to run the apps, which Mac and which macOS version, and which Mac processor architecture?

OK, if you have an M2 Mac, then forget VirtualBox. They are just barely starting beta on their Apple Silicon AArch64 ARM64 virtualization support.

VMware Fusion is also still in beta.

Parallels and UTM do support the Apple Silicon based Macs.

Support for Windows however is limited to using an unofficial Microsoft Surface tablet Windows release.

There is bootcamp, too.

Keith Barkley wrote:

There is bootcamp, too.

Not for M1 or M2 Macs.

He says nothing about Apple Silicon

In case of Apple Silicon Mac you'll have very slow performance with Intel apps in it but non harmness for the Mac.

FWIW, you don't have to use a pre-release version of Windows if you are on an Intel Mac.