Filed under: Software
Parallels Windows virtualization beta
Hot on the heels of Apple's Boot Camp announcement, Parallels has announced Parallels Workstation 2.1 Beta for Mac OS X, a beta of their virtualization software for Intel Macs. Their software allows you to run Windows in OS X, much like Virtual PC, without the need to actually boot into Windows.
Using their software you can run lots of version of Windows (3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, Me, 2000, NT, XP, 2003), any Linux distribution, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS/2, eComStation, or MS-DOS and for the moment the software is free (and in beta). When it is out of beta the software is expected to cost $49.99
Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Christian said 10:51AM on 4-06-2006
They claim "near-native performance" and the ability to run any x86 OS (Windows, Linux, Solaris, and others). If true... wow. Two bad days in a row for Dell.
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kevin said 10:57AM on 4-06-2006
for the love of god, please.. somebody.. try this and tell us how it performs. please. i dont have an intel mac damn it
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GmanMac said 10:59AM on 4-06-2006
What's that sound I hear?
It's the other shoe dropping.
If this works well (or similar programs) I'll be able to start ditching my office PCs and run my windows only program in a single window.
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AK said 11:00AM on 4-06-2006
This is a bigger deal than Boot Camp, because it allows for running Outlook/Project/Visio and still have your OS X environment available. It looks like this makes use of Intel's Virtualization for fast peformance. I'm not sure if Q does that...
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Silver said 11:00AM on 4-06-2006
Macintosh - The Ultimate Computing Machine
Here's my question - if I install Windows using Boot Camp (for games), can I use that same Windows partition/install in Parallels? Or do I have to install another Windows image specifically for the virtual machine?
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boB Rudis said 11:00AM on 4-06-2006
Anyone manage to get it to boot from an XP CD? I'm making an ISO now, but for some reason it would not let me make the physical CD a bootable device option for the VM.
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Andrew Hedges said 11:29AM on 4-06-2006
I wonder if you could use Boot Camp to install drivers on the Parallels solution? For my needs (web development, cross-browser testing), virtualization beats dual-booting hands down. Here's hoping Apple will step up and offer virtualization as an integrated feature of Leopard!
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NNTPgrip said 11:31AM on 4-06-2006
It would take apple to make a virtualization soft that mirrors the HAL of the host and allows the boot camp XP partition from within w/o problems. This would be ideal, boot the same partition on its own for performance in games, or via the VM for outlook/.Net apps etc. I have not personally seen a VM suite that can boot a "real" partition over a VHD. (Maybe I'm just not looking very far)
What is needed between the Mirrors/Q/VMWare/VirtualPC world is HAL parity so that a VHD from one can boot from the other etc w/o need for PnP detect. For the most part you can have pretty good luck sometimes between VPC and VMWare.
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LD said 11:35AM on 4-06-2006
Of course they "claim" near native performance. It would be silly to have marketing say, "yeah, it runs just ok". But how does it really perform? Is it truly taking advantage of hardware virtualization? More importantly, can it boot the WinXP partition on a dual boot system? That will be the winner, the system that can dual boot or boot XP in a VM.
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iomatic said 11:38AM on 4-06-2006
Sheeat.
I would so love to run Windows at 10% slower-than-BootCamp, run the shizz I need to test for the 'MORANS' (intentionally misspelled), and promptly quit back to my soothing and brilliant OS X environment.
Goodbye PowerPC!
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Dr J said 11:53AM on 4-06-2006
Here is a link to a youtube video of parallels in action. Seems pretty quick to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC_DuAUTHWI
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Mark D. said 12:23PM on 4-06-2006
In Reply to NNTPgrip (7):
I think* QEMU does allow for booting a virtual machine from a physical hd, though I can't be sure. I know I did in-fact come across a VM program that allowed for it, as I booted a Linux partition while in XP (though they shared the same physical disk, not recommended and defintely buggy) so it is possible, albiet not stable yet.
*I think it's QEMU, unfortunately (or maybe not) it's on my old Compaq laptop back home, if it isn't QEMU I'll post a follow-up later today.
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yap said 12:24PM on 4-06-2006
This is regarding the questions on speed.
(Copied from a comment on Slashdot left by Mac Guru daveschroeder)
"It's *very* fast, and has full support for Intel VT. Using Windows (or any other OS) inside of the environment is almost like using it natively on the hardware. Literally. It is quite amazing. (Here's a video someone made of it with SnapzPro [prodedgy.com] - that is not my site. )This is the solution many people are waiting for; not dual booting - with the exception of things that need native 3D graphics support, of course...but otherwise, Parallels absolutely screams. This won't be novel to people who have already used things like VMware Workstation on other platforms. But to someone like myself, who has been hoping for a virtualization solution since the very second Steve Jobs uttered that Apple was switching to Intel, this, when polished and in its final form, will be something of a holy grail."
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rbarbera said 12:44PM on 4-06-2006
I have just tried on a iMac 20". Wow! is not native speed compared with the same machine (thanks Boot Camp), but is prety fast! The most jaw droping fact: virtual machine goes from stop to WinXP desktop on 10 to 15 secconds!
The video driver show some artifacts if you activate the shared mouse. I'll install Photoshop and a CAD windows program to see if is usable..
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FritzLaurel said 12:48PM on 4-06-2006
5, What would be really cool would be if you could boot the *Mac* from an image that also worked in a VM Window.
One could just create as many images with whatever OSes you needed. Multiple instances of any OS in as many windows as you have memory for, and also boot the Mac from any one of them for it's main OS if you wanted (for games, etc).
Now it's on!
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gascar said 12:54PM on 4-06-2006
Rock On! I've been using VPC since 3.1 and i can't believe how they have forced me to upgrade every time; 5.0 for OSX, 6.11 for Jaguar, and 7.0.2 for Tiger. Since no one makes speaker design software for the Mac, I'm forced to still use VPC. It's apps like this that make me want an intel Mac....how about an Intel Quad Core PowerMac already!
On a light note; Why is it that every submitted screenshot i see posted has the dock not hidden and always has Xcode, terminal, console, ASP, and automator, and lacks iTunes, Mail, Quicktime, and a whole host of other applications that people use all of the time? Are we supposed to believe that everyone is a hardcore developer and the lack of "consumer" applications adds validity to their post?
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Ahmed Hassan said 12:56PM on 4-06-2006
When I try to mount the d/l'ed dmg, it comes up with an error msg, saying NOT RECOGNIZED. Anyone else with this problem or who knows how to get around it?
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pnarse said 1:24PM on 4-06-2006
Hey gascar, Maybe the reason for all the development tools in the screenshot is that they.... I dunno... use evelopment tools at a software development company?
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Kai Cherry said 1:30PM on 4-06-2006
Parallels is very, very near to native speed. I've been using it on Win32. The speed is *nothing* like VirtualPC, QEMU, Bochs, etc.
It actually uses Intel's VT-x harware virtualization tech.
The "downside" for all y'all OSX "purists" is its UI is written with QT from trolltech, so in the looks department its a lil "ghetto".
The OS X Beta also doesn't support physical optical devices or usb devices (they are supported on Win32 and Linux)
-K
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byrd said 1:39PM on 4-06-2006
I've installe don a MBP and it runs fantastic. My only question is, has anyone on a MAcBook Pro figured out what key combo is CTL-ALT-Delete?
I can only seem to do it plugging in a PC keyboard.
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