Filed under: Software
Parallels 4 is released
Virtualization vendor Parallels has just released Parallels Desktop 4.0 for the Mac. Parallels Desktop is designed to let users run Windows (or Linux) on your Intel Mac within OS X.
The newest version of Parallels Desktop boasts better performance (Parallels is claiming a 50% increase over Parallels Desktop 3.0), better graphics, support for more OSs and support for up to 8 GB of RAM and 8 CPUs. Like VMWare Fusion 2.0, Parallels Desktop 4.0 also supports OS X 10.5 Leopard Server as a guest OS, and features experimental support for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
Some of the other stand-out features:
- Ability to save screenshots across operating systems
- Remotely manage Windows VMs via the iPhone
- Direct X 9.0 and OpenGL 2.0 support and support for up to 256 MB of video RAM (you can see a list of supported games here)
- Parallels Virtual Appliance support
You can check out the full list of new features here. I'm converting my Parallels virtual machine to 4.0 right now and will post more thoughts on Parallels 4.0 and how it stacks up to other virtualization options from VMWare and VirtualBox in the next few days.
Parallels Desktop 4.0 is $79.99 and available now. Existing Parallels customers can upgrade for $39.99 through the end of November. If you purchased Parallels Desktop AFTER September 1, 2008, your upgrade is free.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
MasterLeep said 1:12PM on 11-11-2008
I like the concept and UI of Parallels, but 3.0 has been very buggy for me. Networking works only half the time. When I restart the VM there's a one minute delay before it becomes responsive. It's slow.
I've been thinking of trying the VMWare product instead. I wonder which is better, Parallels 4 or VMWare?
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Jon said 1:26PM on 11-11-2008
VMWare Fusion 2.0 has some significant bugs itself. Read a few VMWare Fusion forums before making the switch.
From what I can tell, in VMWare-land, the 1.x products are considered more stable than the 2.0 product.
Joseph said 2:42AM on 11-12-2008
have had 0 problems w/ vmware.
parallels would not let go of ram and would crash my whole system.
Mike Krus said 1:20PM on 11-11-2008
going to upgrade page, I get "Extended Download for Parallels Desktop" for an additional cost. Does that mean that I cannot redownload it otherwise? Sounds very silly. Charge me extra for a CD, but a download?
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Don Roberts said 2:02PM on 11-11-2008
No. That gets added by the company that processes their sales. They have stated elsewhere in their forums that their products will always be downloadable directly from their servers. Just remove that from your cart before purchasing.
Ben G. said 1:23PM on 11-11-2008
One caveat with Parallels and VMware, especially if working with a Mac Pro, PCI card support does not exist (although I haven't tried Parallels 4.0 yet). I learned this the hard way...
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welchb said 1:24PM on 11-11-2008
That's sorta lame - I bought my version of parallels just a few months ago and now I get to pay 40 bucks to upgrade? And even that's a limited time deal? ffft.
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the Chad said 1:57PM on 11-11-2008
If you bought after Sept. 1st you can upgrade for free. They'll send you an upgrade key sometime today probably.
Dom said 8:11PM on 11-11-2008
You're absolutely right - it's another upgrade rip-off from Parallels.
This is precisely the reason I warn all my friends away from Parallels - they make you pay for upgrades (some of which are essential to fix the bugs in the previous version that they also made you pay for... ad infinitum...)
Myles B said 2:01PM on 12-15-2008
I agree that Parallels makes very buggy software that they never get right from the start. It seems like every week I get a new upgrade "special offer" for another $39.99 to fix their flaws. This, despite the fact that I have unsubscribed from their email list a dozen times.
Tony M said 1:42PM on 11-11-2008
I've had the luxury of testing version 4 for the last few months and I can say this version is far more stable than version 3 and much faster. Even in the early betas I had fewer issues than version 3. I also use vmware fusion 2, and I think parallels 4 has them beat (for now).
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mentalsticks said 5:03PM on 11-11-2008
I agree. I have never been at all impressed with 3.0, but 4.0 seems better (after three hours of trying). Some small hiccups during installation, but this seems fast and stable.
Randy said 2:01PM on 11-11-2008
64bit OS support? Yes or No?
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The Chad said 2:23PM on 11-11-2008
Yes, 64 bit SMP all that jazz
timbemo said 2:31PM on 11-11-2008
Not sure if it's a result of beta testing or not, but my Virtual Machines don't shut down / suspend cleanly since two beta builds ago (and the final build that is out now doesn't fix it either).
I have to reboot my computer before I can get the VMs back up.
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Guillaume said 2:32PM on 11-11-2008
OpenGL 2.0 support: does this mean that Compiz/Fusion desktop animation on a virtualized Ubuntu will be supported? Could someone with Parallels 4 try and tell us? Thanks!
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Christina Warren said 2:40PM on 11-11-2008
I haven't had a chance to install Ubuntu yet (still doing Windows tests), but Aero in Vista does NOT work -- at least with an integrated graphics card -- I don't have an iMac or MBP to test on, so I can' state that definitively, but Aero effects are still no go, which means Compiz will likely not be supported either, but I'll absolutely be checking that out and will include the results in the follow-up article.
balls said 3:16PM on 11-11-2008
@Christina Warren: Aero is DirectX while Compiz is OpenGL. Aero requires more than DX compatibility.
Aero requires pixel shader 2.0 (part of DX9), 1 GB system ram, and a WDDM driver.
EMoShunz said 8:09AM on 11-12-2008
keep us posted. VMware Fusion, or Parallels, first one that will let me run Kubuntu/KDE4 with all it's hardware accelerated glory in a VM environment gets my $80.
Ed Silver said 2:39PM on 11-11-2008
My upgrade of a Windows XP instance has been a rocky road. Had to re-activate windows and the automated install of new parallels tools failed. Still debugging.
Backup, backup, backup.
-Ed
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