virtualization VMWare Workstation PRO vs MS Hyper-V

[Drewsky 3]

Hi,

I am about to switch RAD Studio development to virtualization system. I have a few fast machines with Windows 10 PRO. I am researching between VMWare Workstation PRO and Hyper-V. I do not mind to pay something extra for VMWare. I would like to know from developers who are using the virtualization every day for development and not just for testing or occasional hobby development. I am specifically interested in RAD Studio performance on both systems.

Kind regards

[Dave Novo 51]

We have been using Delphi and VMWare Workstation for a decade at least.  We see no difference between performance in the VM or host computer. When performing timing tests of our applications, we see no difference between timing of single threaded applications between running the timing inside the VM and on the native hardware.

For multi-threaded code, we have found running on the host machine faster compared to within the vm.

[Remy Lebeau 1394]

I second VMWare, but I've always just used the free version, never the paid version.

[John R. 18]

After years of using VMWare Workstation, I switched to Hyper-V (bundled with Windows) and it has been working perfectly so far. As I use VMs from a remote desktop connection, I can't see any differences from my previous workflow. The most important gain for me is that machines are automatically stopped and re-launched when Windows restarts, which wasn't possible in Workstations before (I believe that this has been enhanced in recent versions of VMWare Workstation though).

Under those conditions, I couldn't justify the cost of VMWare Workstation anymore.

[Lars Fosdal 1792]

I used paid VMWare workstation for years. About a year ago, I switched to Hyper-V and never regretted doing so.

[Guest]

Me too (payed VMWare, long time since, VirtualBox for some 5 years).

Hyper-V IMHO (comparing to VirtualBox as my exp w/ WMWare is so dated) gives you a much "snappier" feeling all-over.

Comparing performance to VirtualBox is useless as it's graphics slows down everything to a grind (my setup, my exp, yes, i know other have succeeded).

Only drawback of Hyper-V is it has no "Host Button" (or does it?).

Using Hyper-V (on the same machine) i have not hit anything that makes my development more cumbersome compared to doing it on the host.

[Drewsky 3]

Thank you Gentlemen! 

 

I have to sleep over and make a decision. Both systems are very attractive and I might try them both. 

 

Kind regards

[sakura 45]

I am not sure, whether the Hyper-USB "problem" still exists, however, when I had to made this decision, Hyper-V did not support connection of USB devices into the virtual machine, while VMWare does that without any problems. I you require to develop to access hardware directly, Hyper-V might not be possible, This was three years ago, anyway.

[RDP1974 40]

hyper-v is way faster in order of magnitude than vmware for desktop delphi ide

usb you can insert them in client connect options

[Darian Miller 361]

4 hours ago, John R. said:

After years of using VMWare Workstation, I switched to Hyper-V (bundled with Windows) and it has been working perfectly so far. As I use VMs from a remote desktop connection, I can't see any differences from my previous workflow. The most important gain for me is that machines are automatically stopped and re-launched when Windows restarts, which wasn't possible in Workstations before (I believe that this has been enhanced in recent versions of VMWare Workstation though).

Under those conditions, I couldn't justify the cost of VMWare Workstation anymore.

 

VMWare Workstation Pro took out the shared VM / auto-start feature in 16.0 but added it back for 16.1 after a ton of complaints.  The feature is marked as deprecated but they may be adding a new way to auto-start VMs in a future version.

 

 

[Drewsky 3]

On 5/10/2021 at 5:46 PM, RDP1974 said:

hyper-v is way faster in order of magnitude than vmware for desktop delphi ide

usb you can insert them in client connect options

So I can access all USB devices or I am limited with Hyper-V? 

[FredS 138]

13 minutes ago, Drewsky said:

So I can access all USB devices or I am limited with Hyper-V? 

One of the options besides adding already plugged in ones was to alert when you plug one in but I didn't test it.

 

Use local resources on Hyper-V virtual machine with VMConnect

Edited May 11, 2021 by FredS

[Drewsky 3]

Thank you all for good replies! 

I know that VMWare is extremely portable, but how does Hyper-V compare to VMWare? Do virtual machines work on different hardware powered Windows PRO (different CPU and GPU)?

[Lars Fosdal 1792]

3D GPU performance is a mixed bag, imo - but why would you test that in a VM? 

You'd remote debug that from the VM on a physical machine.

 

The CPU is virtualized, so I guess the only time you'd get into trouble is if you try to run something like a VM with 8 cores on a 4 core machine or use more memory than is physically present.

I would expect Hyper-V to simply cut down to the max avail if exceeded.

[Alexander Elagin 143]

Have been using paid VMware Workstation since its version 5, no problems thus far. Easy to carry VM (on a eSATA or USB3.1 external SSD drive) between different computers, no problems with USB devices in the guest OS (I stick with W7 Pro as the guest OS). Graphics is a bit slower in the guest compared to the host, otherwise no speed differences.

[Fr0sT.Brutal 900]

VirtualBox is OK for my needs

[Edwin Yip 154]

1 hour ago, Fr0sT.Brutal said:

VirtualBox is OK for my needs

I was having the same perception for many many years, until my Win 10 Guest became deadly slow on a Win 7 host. Then switched to VMWare and wow, much "snappy" now!

Haven't used Hyper-V though.

Edited May 13, 2021 by Edwin Yip

[Wil van Antwerpen 25]

Hi,

On 5/10/2021 at 6:32 PM, Darian Miller said:

 

VMWare Workstation Pro took out the shared VM / auto-start feature in 16.0 but added it back for 16.1 after a ton of complaints.  The feature is marked as deprecated but they may be adding a new way to auto-start VMs in a future version.

That is correct, see also: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/Shared-VMs-are-back-in-Workstation-16-1/td-p/2811423

 

Even if it doesn't come back, I have a product for that (Vimarun, you can find it via the link in my footer) written in Delphi of course 😉 .

It does not only take care of auto start, but also auto suspends your VM(s) on shutdown.

 

As for what product to use...

Don't really ask me as I'm a long time VMware user that even has a few VMware related products and is an active user moderator at their forums.
VMware Workstation / Fusion / Player and vSphere have always worked very well for me.

However I strongly believe that you should use what works for you.

 

Hyper-V, Virtualbox, KVM, Parallels etc.. are all very mature as well.

[Darian Miller 361]

51 minutes ago, Wil van Antwerpen said:

Even if it doesn't come back, I have a product for that (Vimarun, you can find it via the link in my footer) written in Delphi of course 😉 .

It does not only take care of auto start, but also auto suspends your VM(s) on shutdown.

 

I'll keep your products in mind, thanks!

 

[Guest]

Well, Hyper-V, as said already, is the best choice for me.

There's one thing i miss from VirtualBox (and VMWare, IIRC) - the host button.

I could hit Right-Ctrl and then Alt+Tab (or whatever) to tab amongst apps in the host (i.e. go-to-host-button).

 

Anyone knows if Hyper-V/RDP has a similar function?

[Wil van Antwerpen 25]

6 hours ago, Dany Marmur said:

There's one thing i miss from VirtualBox (and VMWare, IIRC) - the host button.

I could hit Right-Ctrl and then Alt+Tab (or whatever) to tab amongst apps in the host (i.e. go-to-host-button).

Don't know about Hyper-V, but on VMware Workstation, hold down Ctrl+Alt and then Alt-Tab should work.

On Fusion that would be Ctrl+Command followed by Alt-Tab. Although on the latter -when in full screen- I prefer to use a 4 finger trackpad swipe left/right between desktops. Using that all the time to switch between VM's and host.

[Drewsky 3]

Hi everyone,

I have decided to give VMWare Workstation PRO a try. So far the virtual machine is very responsive with RAD Studio Enterprise running. I am in the process of installing a ton of my libraries and components plus numerous 3rd party products. I will report back on how things are running when RAD Studio is packed.

Regarding Hyper-V, even if I have a few Windows PRO machines, my plan is to switch to powerful Linux laptops (www.tuxedocomputers.com), hopefully by the end of the year. Porting RAD Studio development environment to Linux machine will be easier this way.

Thank you all for replies and advice, highly appreciated!

Edited May 17, 2021 by Drewsky

[Lars Fosdal 1792]

MS submitted changes to the Linux kernel in June 2020 that would allow running Hyper-V hosting on Linux.

Not sure if this is present in any current Linux release yet.

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Lars Fosdal said:

running Hyper-V hosting on Linux.

Cool 🙂

Even more if i could host Hyper-V on a Chromebook!

Edited May 19, 2021 by Guest

[Attila Kovacs 629]

I've already asked before, how can you work on a slow and laggy VM?

It sounds like washing your feet with socks on.