Parallels Desktop Release Candidate 2, uh, released
Get your mice clicking ladies and gentlemen, as Parallels has offered up the final test version of Parallels Desktop for Mac, their virtualization software that allows you to run almost any OS right within Mac OS X. With this version, however, Parallels has increased the app's final price to $79.99, as they have incorporated their Compressor Server tool (due to user feedback) into the software package for streamlining and optimizing your virtual machines and the amount of disk space they occupy. The beta testing pre-order price of $39.99 is still in place, and probably more appetizing than ever. Other new features and improvements in the Release Candidate 2 include:
- Significantly improved performance
- Improved USB performance and broader device support
- Improved Host-guest networking
- Automatic network adapters now switch on-the-fly
- Guest OS no longer steals host IP address in some DHCP servers
- Fullscreen mode is now customizable
- Integration with Virtue is now bug-free
- Customizable Ctrl + Click mapping
- Guest 32bit color is supported when Parallels Tools is installed
- Improved Shared folders performance
- Resolved shared folders/MS Office incompatibility issues
- Windows 98 no longer consumes 99% host CPU even when idle (in VT-x mode)
_thumbnail.jpg "Take a stroll down memory lane")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
John Laur said 4:51PM on 5-31-2006
How about support for a partition as a virtual drive? Windows hardware profiles could allow you to boot your boot camp install both natively and inside a VM.
Reply
John Schlemmer said 5:05PM on 5-31-2006
Benchmarks, please... The only thing I'd use this for is possibly trying to play games that aren't built for Macs. Tell me, what is it exactly that people use this for? Once Adobe releases its universal line of products I would honestly see no reason to open up Windows ever again, other than possibly playing a game that's made for Windows. If it can't do that, then... well, I see no reason. What else can Windows do that a Mac can't?
Reply
paul said 5:11PM on 5-31-2006
Will this work well on a Macbook?
Reply
Ryan said 5:17PM on 5-31-2006
Yes....I'm running it right now at work. It works like a breeze. Just make sure you have at least 1 gig of ram on your system.
Reply
super g said 5:23PM on 5-31-2006
this is great for web designers who need to test their site for ie on windows. plus there's some software like ms access, etc that doesn't work.
does this support wi-fi?
Reply
fra said 5:33PM on 5-31-2006
super g - I'm just gessing this, but I think OSX would just tell Windows that it's running on an ethernet connection and run as normal.
Reply
mick129 said 5:37PM on 5-31-2006
I'd also love the option to use a Boot Camp partition as a virtual drive. The Q team (http://www.kberg.ch/q/ QEMU written in Cocoa) has said they are looking into it. I hope they or the Parallels people implement it.
Reply
Adam said 5:41PM on 5-31-2006
The Parallels team has stated on the forums that they intend to add support for partition based installs in future versions. How far off that is, is hard to tell, though.
I really like it, so much that I bought it. I have a few windows-only apps and hardware that I need to use, and this made it a breeze.
Reply
kirk said 6:01PM on 5-31-2006
Tell me, what is it exactly that people use this for? Once Adobe releases its universal line of products I would honestly see no reason to open up Windows ever again, other than possibly playing a game that's made for Windows.
I use it for the same reason I used Virtual PC on my PowerBook -- to use apps I have to use that aren't ported to Mac [and never will be like MS Access]. I also use it for websites that insist on IE/Windows that I can't do without. And Solitaire.
The virtual video drivers w/o good DirectX support mean you're going to have a poor gaming experience in Parallels. However, my old school favorite Roller Coaster Tycoon works great.
Reply
Michael said 6:08PM on 5-31-2006
this is a great program. I use it to run Visual Studio on an XP Guest OS. This has saved me having to fork out for a pc for uni.
Reply
hacintosh said 6:08PM on 5-31-2006
Parallels is a great alternative to running VMware on windows and/or linux and a MUCH better price(yes VMware prob does 1000 more things but I never used them and it doesnt yet work on OS X). I use Parallels to get ride of a old machine that I would use to play with different linux distros and to test unstable servers (web, voip, etc) before I depolyed them onto my main server. Being a security person a virtual OS is also great for testing/writing the latest exploits against an OS/sandbox that I dont care about and that I can quickly "reimage" a pristine OS. Now my only question (only beccause I havent tried it yet) is has anyone tried to install OS X in Parallels??
Reply
wastern said 6:14PM on 5-31-2006
has anyone had success with this. I can download it, but it won't mont.
i want the Virtue bug fix that is in there
Reply
Jeff said 6:52PM on 5-31-2006
Can someone provide more info on this new feature:
Fullscreen mode is now customizable
Does that mean I can dynamically change the size of the window?
Reply
Beirne said 7:29PM on 5-31-2006
To answer poster #2, I use Windows under Parallels for three things: Quicken, Supermemo, and IE. The Quicken for the Mac isn't very good, Supermemo isn't available for the Mac, and one web page I need to go to requires ActiveX. I wish I could do these on the Mac, but I can't and Parallels is priced such that this is a good solution for me.
Reply
Jonathan Monroe said 9:58PM on 5-31-2006
Regarding running Windows, Linux, Solaris, etc all at the same time - it goes to show that one man's idea of nirvana is another's idea of a nightmare.
Reply
David Chartier said 10:39PM on 5-31-2006
There's a ton of software out there, outside the Adobe universe, that is Windows-only. Medical, business, real estate, law... the list is endless. As much as we all love Mac OS X, it's still in the single-digit market usage. Most of the planet is using Windows, and a lot of those people are (whether by choice, against their will or otherwise) using Windows-only software.
Reply
mike said 10:46PM on 5-31-2006
"other than possibly playing a game that's made for Windows"
which you would NEVER use Parallels for.. you would just use Boot Camp
Reply
Jan Peters said 2:10AM on 6-01-2006
Can I copy and paste between windows and Mac OS X? I can do that between Virtual PC on my G4 and Mac OS X. Even with pictures!
Reply
XIII said 3:49AM on 6-01-2006
I hope they found some sort of solution for the VT-x recognition problem, because it absolutely crawls on my Mini.
Reply
Thayne Miller said 4:27AM on 6-01-2006
I use windows for engineering applications that are not written for mac. Yes, there is a world of uses for this outside of gaming. Also, quicktime can't edit mpeg2 video files, so that's another reason I need to have windows around. Yes, I could buy Final Cut Pro, but for just a quick & dirty cut and splice, there are free software apps that work quite well in windows. Again, quicktime pro can read mpeg2 video files if you have the apple codec, but it can not edit them. If anyone can show me an alternative to either of these two uses, feel free (and don't someone say mpeg streamclip because I'm not trying to re-encode, I'm just simply trying to edit an mpeg2).
Reply