Parallels VS VM Ware VS UTM smackdown.... Which is best?

I haven't yet installed any copy of Windows on any of my M-series Macs, but from those 3 options only one feels appealing to me, and that is UTM, not because it works flawlessly, but because it's open so I can make it work flawlessly.

Earlier today I decided to research the most effective way to make the installation of the ARM version of Windows 11 on macOS as straightforward and accessible as possible, so I started by reading out on how to inject VirtIO drivers into the Windows installer to address the missing audio problem during the installation, then I went to the GitHub Crystal ISO Fetch project repository in order to investigate the best approach to adapt the Windows instructions from the first link to a tool used to create Windows installation media on macOS, followed by reading the script actually responsible for building the ISO file, and finally I realized that nothing of this is actually necessary because UTM already integrates with AppleEvents so the installation can theoretically already be automated with AppleScript, Automator, and Shortcuts.

While as I mentioned in theory the above completely eliminates the need to inject drivers into the windows installation media, timing scripts to work around the lack of output processing is still far too clunky for my taste so I continued digging deeper and came across Apple's VisionKit framework, which can in theory be used to OCR the contents displayed by the virtual machine in real time and get the bounding boxes of all the text displayed by the guest system. This, combined with the aforementioned UTM scriptability, makes it both possible and feasible to implement an event-based system that can be scripted to locate, expect, and react to the visual output of the virtual machine, in addition to generate native accessibility elements to make the guest perfectly accessible with VoiceOver from the host.

If I succeed in implementing my ideas, UTM will be taken to the next level and will be on a league of its own in terms of automation and accessibility, and virtualization can even become our best option to tackle inaccessible operating systems, the only thing I need is time to work on personal projects again so I can commit to this goal. This isn't even the only accessibility project that I have in mind involving on-device computer vision, but my success with this one will dictate whether I'll consider tackling the rest.

Using a VM is way, way out of my comfort zone. Also, I realize that this was back in 2011, so tons of things have probably changed, but when I first got this computer, a friend tried to help me set up VM fusion. It was sluggish to the point of being unuseible, and it kept losing my jaws authorization. I'd say that I use windows around 90 percent of the time; pretty much only use the actual mac side of things for email at this point, but as this 14-year-old computer proves, Apple hardware is vastly superior to anything else out there, or at least it was back when I first got this computer. So I use bootcamp and it works beautifully. I have no clue what I'm going to do when the sad yet inevitable day comes that this computer needs to be replaced. Just praying it has a few more good years in it. True, it can't be updated in any way, but it meets all my needs perfectly: playing audio games, web browsing and basic word processing. I'll definitely be monitoring these kinds of topics as closely as I can, though, since it's pretty clear that Apple doesn't have any plans to bring Bootcamp back any time soon, if ever.

When the M1 launched, rumor has it that Microsoft had a secret exclusivity deal with Qualcomm, and Craig Federighi also said the following at the time:

We have the core technologies for them to do that, to run their ARM version of Windows, which in turn of course supports x86 user mode applications. But that's a decision Microsoft has to make, to bring to license that technology for users to run on these Macs. But the Macs are certainly very capable of it.

So, at least to me, it seems like the actual reason why Bootcamp doesn't currently exist for ARM-based Macs, is because Microsoft is not licensing it properly, which seems to be further corroborated by Microsoft themselves:

Windows 11 runs best on a PC designed for Windows.

Parallels® Desktop versions 18, 19, and 20 are authorized solutions for running Arm® versions of Windows 11 Pro and Windows 11 Enterprise in a virtual environment on its platform on Apple M1, M2, and M3 computers.

João, thanks for sharing that link. I always just assumed that the hold-up was Apple just not wanting to invest in Boot Camp on M-series Macs. From that article, it sounds like Microsoft knows exactly what they are doing and has no interest in changing that. Disappointing, as the Mac hardware is top of the line but, as others have already said, the VoiceOver experience is far inferior to what one can get on Windows for most use cases.

Could Microsoft have been holding back for the launch of their ARM machines? Genuinely asking here.

Was wondering will vm ware be far superior than utm?
I've always been noticing that there is always an input lag while using utm.
The amount of times I used windows virtual machine is so few that I doubt I will remember my password the next time I use it on my Mac.
but still I'm just wondering would I get a better experience if I switch to VMware fusion

Yes I use UTM and there is a lag. It is minimal but if another VM solution can have lower lag that's perfect.