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Parallels Releases Final Version of Parallels Desktop for Mac


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Good news for those on the virtualization front, Parallels has released a final version of Parallels Desktop for Mac, after months of eager testing by users. Offering high performance taking advantage of the virtualization features built into the Core processors, it allows users to run various operating systems, inlcuding Windows and Linux, at the same time as native OS X, similar to VMWare software. It's currently availible for an introductory price of $49.99 for 30 days. Registration gets you a free 15-day trial. After an exciting beta test, hopefully this will offer a nice Windows in OS X experience.


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Could I boot into my Vaio's windows HD from this app? I can access OS X from within VMware in Windows if I'm too lazy to reboot, and it'd be great if I could also work with things vice versa.

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I am posting from Parallels Final and nothing has changed that I can tell since RC2.I think RC2 and Final have the same Build numbers ^_^

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So this is basically vmware for osx, Im not sure i get what is so special, i installed windows 2000 just to test it, and i noticed that the mouse dissappears when i go in fullscreen lol

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So this is basically vmware for osx, Im not sure i get what is so special, i installed windows 2000 just to test it, and i noticed that the mouse dissappears when i go in fullscreen lol

The main reason I like it is that it functions fairly similary to VMWare workstation, but the cost is around 1/3. You do get what you pay for (on the linux side anyway) as I think VMWare works better. Parallels needs to release a free VM player, too, though.

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If you want it to run descent, get a processor with VT. You're wasting your time and getting your hopes up too high without it. It's even sluggish under Linux w/o VT.

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I have no complaints about the speed, even without VT on my CPU. Running RC2 still, but can run XP and OS X at the same time, and Windows runs at probably about 90% of native speed! I can even encode video on Windows and run OS X with no noticeable drag. I think the key is simply memory. Running a Windows session with 768 Mb and leaving the rest of my 2 Gb for OS X, seems to be the sweet spot for my setup.

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I have no complaints about the speed, even without VT on my CPU. Running RC2 still, but can run XP and OS X at the same time, and Windows runs at probably about 90% of native speed!

So you mean to tell me that when you got on a vmware workstation and compared it to a parallels workstation, there are no notable differences especialy with window dragging and lagging? If so, then there is a difference between a P4 and and AMD.

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I give xp 512 mb ram and it runs on my se3 1mb l2 cache prescott about 80-90% native speed(feels like).Menus,webpages,installing apps all seem to be fine.Parallels even shuts down faster then my native xp install.

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So you mean to tell me that when you got on a vmware workstation and compared it to a parallels workstation, there are no notable differences especialy with window dragging and lagging? If so, then there is a difference between a P4 and and AMD.

VMWare is faster for me than parallels on a machine that doesn't have VT (this is under Linux as the host OS). Not a ton faster, but I can notice a difference. (520 CPU)

 

Still, when you're talking $50 instead of $179 or so, it's not bad at all. :dev: I'll be sending them $50.

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I'm loving Parallels! :dev:

 

the only issue i'm "concerned" about is that winxp doesn't recognize the emulated videocard, so it run all the 2d effect (and i fear Ultima Online as well) very slow...

 

Q had drivers for the videocard... does Parallels has some kind of video drivers?

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I'm loving Parallels! :dev:

 

the only issue i'm "concerned" about is that winxp doesn't recognize the emulated videocard, so it run all the 2d effect (and i fear Ultima Online as well) very slow...

 

Q had drivers for the videocard... does Parallels has some kind of video drivers?

 

I am having that same problem. It is supposed to install the video driver when you install Parallels Tools, but it never worked for me.

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It has that problem, even with their tools installed? (just saw the post above me). It made a huge difference in GUI speed, but I don't know if it has full DirectX support, or just basic VESA3 stuff.

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This is probably a sillly question, BUT: is there any way to have Parallels run my existing full installation of XP on it's own NTFS partition while in OSX? I dual boot using the windows bootloader with the chain0 file. I just don't like the idea of having two Windows installations taking up space. It would be nice if I could have the option of either natively booting to, or virtualling running in OSX, the exact same installation of XP.

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This is probably a sillly question, BUT: is there any way to have Parallels run my existing full installation of XP on it's own NTFS partition while in OSX? I dual boot using the windows bootloader with the chain0 file. I just don't like the idea of having two Windows installations taking up space. It would be nice if I could have the option of either natively booting to, or virtualling running in OSX, the exact same installation of XP.

 

Sadely Parallels does not support yet booting to physical partition. :blink:

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VMWare is faster for me than parallels on a machine that doesn't have VT (this is under Linux as the host OS). Not a ton faster, but I can notice a difference. (520 CPU)

 

Still, when you're talking $50 instead of $179 or so, it's not bad at all. :blink: I'll be sending them $50.

Oh beleive I didn't mind making the investment in Parallels for both Linux and OS X. Think of it as a technical advantage with my competitors :|

 

- Parallels runs smoother when using wifi. vmware (vmnet0), for some reason often times kills my connection to the AP.

- vmware isn't support under Mac and Parsllels is support in all OS I use and maintain.

- If you compare vmware/win and parallels/win, there is a huge improvement in boot process when using parallels

- parallels' window dragging and right click response is laggy under OS X, Windows, and Linux.

- there used to be a problem with Linux/Parallels/xgl/compiz and the guest OS window being transparent. It's now fixed (file hacked) and posted in the parallels board ^_^.

 

That said, I think parallels has no way to go but up. I know there is more room for improvements, especially with mounting physical drives/partitions and expand it's USB device support.

 

I have not had any problems with install Parallels Tools.

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So you mean to tell me that when you got on a vmware workstation and compared it to a parallels workstation, there are no notable differences especialy with window dragging and lagging? If so, then there is a difference between a P4 and and AMD.

No I mean to tell you that my OSX/XP Box that I tested it on is dual boot. When I boot XP inside Parallels it runs at about 90% the speed of when I do a straight native boot of XP off the same machine.

 

The only solid benchmark I have is video encoding. Using WinAVI native in XP it takes me about 20 minutes to re-encode a 60 minute piece of video to MPEG2. Using WinAVI in XP running in Parallels it took about 26 minutes to encode the same piece of video.

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