Boot Camp vs Parallels?

Also, here's one article among many that compare the two.

Thanks for the link, looking for a comparison got me an article from 2011!
Dunno why I don't come here first...
Let me run that by her, as that may be preferred in her case, as opposed to having to boot to the other OS.
I don't mind that myself, as I'm usually in one mode or the other, but I can see that as an advantage.

Boot camp is dual boot and only allows one OS at one time.

So I most definitely recommend virtualizing software for the reason noted above - run both operating systems simultaneously.

I use VMware Workstation on my Windows 10 Host and have several guest operating systems.  You can have more than one guest with Parallels.

You need more RAM if you want to go Parallels.  It rides on top of your existing system and carves out a chunk of RAM.  8 GB is just barely enough to run OS X and Parallels.  You need to go 16 GB to have decent performance now.  Back with Lion, you could get by with 8 GB, but that was when RAM usage was lower for OS X and Windows.

With Bootcamp, you have full use of RAM, but you have to completely restart the OS.  With OS X, you can set it to reload your previous state, but Windows does not have  that capability.  You can spend less on the system by buying less RAM if you go the Bootcamp route.

Parallels looks and fits better with the OS X GUI and costs more.  You could go with VMWare and save $20.  It works just as well as Paralllels, but doesn't have the same polished OS X feel.  If you connect to VMWare ESXi or VCenter hosts, VMWare is much better integrated to connect to them.  There's also the free Virtualbox which is great for people that only use Windows rarely.

8 GB is just barely enough to run OS X and Parallels

That may be true but my iMac has 4 8-GB slots of which I use two, and that's more than enough for me.

Waiting on specs for her computer. Not sure how old her mac is, or if its one of the newer ones where ram or HD aren't upgradeable.
In that case, Boot Camp may be the way to go.

Boot Camp or Virtualizing software will both use roughly the same amount of disk.  Disk space for a complete machine.

So either way should work - your choice.

Bootcamp sets a fixed disk size on disk that can only be moved or changed later with 3rd party partition managers.  Parallels can use the Bootcamp partition so that you can still boot to Bootcamp when needed, or it can use a lazy zeroed file which can use less space, untill your Windows partition starts filling up.  The newer VMWare Fusion can boot from Bootcamp, but older versions could not.

The new macs only have soldered RAM.  The SSDs are M.2 sticks, of which there are 3 versions for the Mac.  The 2nd and 3rd gen are the most common.  The first version was mainly on specific, early Macbook Air models.  The easiest place to get the proper replacement model is from Other World Computing.  https://www.macsales.com/

reading this old post would lead me to use the Parallels options instead of going the Boot Camp route:

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/28233306/Cannot-Boot-into-Macintosh-HD-after-attempting-bootcamp-resize.html

I think this is more simple than all this.  If your user does not need to easily share data between the two operating systems, AND plans on being in one OS more than the other, I would recommend boot camp.  It runs faster than a VM solution and it gets the full resources of the machine. And with an SSD drive reboot time isn’t not a problem, as it takes less than a minute to get into either OS on a reboot.

Same of the Mac side. If this user needs to go back and forth easily while working in both operating systems, the a VM solution would work better.

I have a MacBookPro from 2012 (with an SSD drive installed) running Bootcamp Windows 7, and it is faster than my 5 year old Acer desktop, which was not a low end machine. This computer is 99% of the time in windows. Note that my Mac partition is partially available in windows, but that machine is not on APFS, but rather HFS+, and there is a Windows driver to read that Disk. I do not know if the same is true for Apple’s new file system.

On my 2.9 GHz i7 MacBookPro also from 2012, I use parallels. I have 8 GB of RAM and put in a 1 TB SSD drive and Parallels has no problem running Windows at the same time. It is not as fast as Bootcamp and there’s are times it lags badly, and I am constantly asked to which OS  a plugged in device belongs to, but being able to have shared desktop, access to programs across operating system, even drag and drop across operating systems  makes this an ideal machine to run that way.  Because I only have 8GB of RAM, I limit how many apps I run at the same time, but still, not a major set back

So if my old 2012 MacBookPro can run both, I suspect a new machine may work just fine.
And my answer says either depending on what the intended use is. For my VM MacBookPro, there are several programs I want that only run in Windows. This lets me easily run what I need and stay in Mac which is my preferred solution.

Also, the VM in Parallels can be put to sleep (hibernate) when not needed, and restarting that machine when needed is quite fast (if you have an SSD drive.)

Experts, I am rewriting this response as it really didn't make a whole lot of sense the way it was written:

@Author

In my Humble opinion they both have very real benefits. However it depends on what you are going to be using them for.

You are going to get better performance when you are utilizing Bootcamp because it can directly access the hardware and is not sitting on top of an existing OS which is already going to be utilzing the systems memory and resources. Parallels on the otherhand is at a disadvantage on this because it has to interact with both operating systems at the same time. Parallels does a wonderful job mitigating the hurdles associated with this however with it's dynamic allocation of RAM and resources. But if you are looking for pure functionality and speed, you are going to want to go bootcamp. If you are looking at two operating systems that appear to be litterly merged together then you want to look at parallels. The increased funcationlity alone would trun me to the software "IF" raw perormance was not a consideration.

@owen,

You beat me to it..

As Owen + ITguy565 + John suggested...

State what you're trying to accomplish + speed required.

Tip: I've used many VMs + Virtual box (free) always seems to perform slightly better to amazingly better, compared to other VMs.

David, I forgot all about Virtusl Box. I used to use that a lot when it has Sun’s name on it. A good free option for sure.

While that may be true on Linux or Windows, VIrtual box is sluggish on a Mac compared to VMWare and Parallels.  I don't like the reboot, so I use wine for any windows executable that runs in it.  It uses much less RAM and starts and runs faster than a full VM.  It also doesn't require a reboot to BootCamp.

If you have 16 GB RAM or more, then go VM.  If not, you still need to go Bootcamp, regardless of you desired use case.  You need a minimum of 16 GB to run a VM on comfortably a Mac.  8GB is only good for a quick test of somethig in the VM.  You can start a VM, but you'll bog down your Mac, unless you close down your other apps to the bare minimum.

I would agree with that assessment for Mac and virtual Box for one simple reason. when you are utilizing a VM platform and need True 3d graphics, utilizing the VM graphics drivers seldom work. This is where Wine, and Bootcamp come in. Wine is able to run direct windows Executables as well as Direct X. Even with Wine, you are going to have sluggishness issues however, because you are still utilizing a platform ontop of a platform even though you are running direct windows executables and applications. Look at it as almost the same difference as a Hardware Raid and Software Raid. Do both of these accomplish the same thing? The answer is yes, but when you look at the performance aspects of the hardware vs. the software, what do you see? A VAST increase in speed and reliability. This is pretty much the same difference you see with these two applications when it comes to performance.

ITguy565, not by much at that, we must have been composing at the same time! No worries, and thanks for noticing.

Loaded her up with Parallels, as she ahad already bought that at Mack store, plus has a friend using the same setup, which may get me off the hook for a lot of questions down the road.
HAven't heard anything from her, so far, knock on wood.
Thanks to all!