I want the most user friendly option available. And how does bootcamp "work" with either of them? The disadvantage to bootcamp is the re-boot necessary.
I am excited to make a choice but seems there are pros and cons to both.
I am running XP media center. I have no clue what Linux is/does, can anyone shed some light on this as it is frequently an issue on these threads.
The first thing to realise is that
VMWare Fusion and
Parallels Desktop are competing products which do almost exactly the same thing (and any extra feature that one currently has will probably turn up in the other before long). If you are switching to Mac and have a couple of Windows programs that you still need, then either of them will probably be suitable. Do remember that you will need to buy a copy of Windows to go with them, though (not sure if Media Centre works - but you'd be better off with XP Home).
If you want to know which is better you'll have to make a judgement from lots of internet flame-wars and andecdotal evidence. My 0.5c worth: If I mainly wanted a way of running Windows apps on a Mac, I'd go for Parallels, who seem to be concentrating their efforts on Windows/Mac integration for 'regular users'. If I was mostly interested in experimenting with Linux and exotic things, I'd probably plump for VMWare. (Although Parallels does work with Linux, it usually requires some tinkering to get it to work properly).
Neither of them will turn your Mac into an ideal platform for running PC games or other "high performance" PC software, since they all have to "share" access to memory, video cards, hard drives etc. with Mac OS. That's where Bootcamp comes in, as it lets Windows take over your machine completely and use "proper" graphics drivers etc. Apart from the rebooting, the downside is having to dedicate a big chunk of your hard drive to windows - and while you're in Windows you can't access any files on the "Mac" part of your hard drive (its slightly better accessing the Windows bit from Mac bit there are still issues).
Normally, Parallels and VMWare create a disc file that acts as a "virtual" hard drive (which starts small and grows as the drive "fills up") - and you install a fresh copy of Windows onto this drive. However, if you already have a Bootcamp installation, they can use the dedicated "windows" part of your hard drive instead, and use the copy of windows installed there. The
only advantage of this is that you don't need a second installation of Windows (and all your applications) to use with Parallels - you
don't get the performance advantages of BootCamp without rebooting; you open a whole new can of bugs & features (Windows "sees" a completely different machine when it wakes up in Parallels or boot camp) and you lose some of the features you get with a virtual hard drive (such as suspending the virtual machine, or making "snapshots" before experimenting with new software etc.)
In short - if you just want to use software like "quickbooks" and "cute FTP" then there is no need to go anywhere near bootcamp.
I have no clue what Linux is/does
Its the low-level "kernel" around which a whole family of complete operating systems - some full-blown desktop systems comparable* to OSX or Windows, others tailored for phones, personal video recorders, firewall/routers - have been built.
These operating systems often just get called "Linux" and some pedants get hot under the collar about that.
"GNU/Linux" is more politically correct but if you apply that principle with any sort of consistency you end up with "GNU/X.Org/BSD/KDE/Samba/Mozilla/CUPS/RedHat/Apache/.../Linux" and you need a bigger box.
They are usually "free", and that goes a bit deeper than just not costing money.
Now go google for the rest.
(*"comparable" in the same sense that religions, football teams and political parties are comparable... you have been warned)
