Best software for mac book pro

I am a new mac user and having trouble finding the best software for mac.  Windows for mac and parallels desktop have been recommended to me.  There is such a significant price difference between the two, is there a difference in what they offer? Are there any other software options for mac that I should be looking into?

new2mac0312 wrote:
I am a new mac user and having trouble finding the best software for mac.
http://bestmacsoftware.org/
http://www.macupdate.com/
Windows for mac and parallels desktop have been recommended to me. 
There is such a significant price difference between the two, is there a difference in what they offer?
Windows is a operating system from Microsoft, that costs more money.
OS X is the operating system on your Mac, it came free with the Mac you bought.
Parallels and VMFusion are paid virtual machine software that can run other operating systems like a programs inside other operating systems, there is a performance penalty, but it's easier for new users and those who don't need the full power of the hardware.
There is also VirtualBox, it's free virtual machine software with less features, but doesn't suffer from forcing you to upgrade for more money like the commercial versions do.
Virtual Machine software has the ability to run other operating systems and a large portion of their software, which makes it attractive.
There is Apple's BootCamp, it's also free, which allows one to section their boot drive space (called a partition) and install Windows 7 (only) there, this way one can directly boot a Mac into Windows 7 for better performance for 3D games and other heavy CPU uses. Although it's easy, it can be a lot more problematic if there is a problem.
So you have those choices to run plenty of software, from Windows based programs, to Mac ones to Linux ones too.
Windows in BootCamp or Virtual Machine?

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