Parallels Desktop 9 with OS X Mavericks and Cloud Services Support Launches for Existing Customers

Which means OS X is around the corner.

If Parallels actually supported their software I'd probably get this. They seem to have a bad habit of dropping support as soon as there is a new version (which is every year).

cymerc said:

If Parallels actually supported their software I'd probably get this. They seem to have a bad habit of dropping support as soon as there is a new version (which is every year).

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It is amazing how much money people are prepared to invest to run Windows on a Mac. I think for most it would be much cheaper to buy a secondary machine instead of paying their yearly Parallels-tax...

Detektiv-Pinky said:

I think for most it would be much cheaper to buy a secondary machine instead of paying their yearly Parallels-tax...

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or just use Virtualbox, which is free.

Think i'll wait until Parallels 9 gets into a Fall Bundle, like has occurred for the past few years.

twintin said:

or just use Virtualbox, which is free.

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Virtualbox is a good alternative, but the performance isn't as good as Parallels - especially for graphical demanding apps - especially gaming.

Detektiv-Pinky said:

It is amazing how much money people are prepared to invest to run Windows on a Mac. I think for most it would be much cheaper to buy a secondary machine instead of paying their yearly Parallels-tax...

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or dual boot. that's the best option for running my windows programs. no need to get another box when my one box is essentially 2 computers just physically put together in one box.

i still have Parallels 7 for when I am on OS X, and need to access a windows app without having to reboot, but if you need to use windows for a prolonged amount of time, then the dual boot would beat out any sort of emulation.

Anyone know how is Android support in the new version, I can't find a change log!

Stella said:

Think i'll wait until Parallels 9 gets into a Fall Bundle, like has occurred for the past few years.



Virtualbox is a good alternative, but the performance isn't as good as Parallels - especially for graphical demanding apps - especially gaming.

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I can't imagine why one would try gaming using a virtual machine vs a non-virtual machine. with boot camp, there's no reason to do so either.

Detektiv-Pinky said:

It is amazing how much money people are prepared to invest to run Windows on a Mac. I think for most it would be much cheaper to buy a secondary machine instead of paying their yearly Parallels-tax...

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It's not about cost. It's about convenience. Having two machines, especially for those of us who are mobile/laptop only, just isn't viable. Plus, the integration of files between the guest and the host OS actually comes in handy.

Be quite interesting to see how Power Nap works with it, since none of the windows apps will know how to use it. As long as it's aggressively managed by OS X it should actually be fine, but if it's running everything through Parallels and constantly polling updates for Norton Anti Virus then it can go and smoke itself.

cymerc said:

If Parallels actually supported their software I'd probably get this. They seem to have a bad habit of dropping support as soon as there is a new version (which is every year).

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Worst. Customer Service. Ever.

They seem to have a bad habit of not understanding how to support the products they currently have.

Meh - the student price, which I technically am, is cheaper than the upgrade. I'll probably pick it up as a student when Mavericks launches, or as part of one of the Bundle sales that seem to happen pretty regularly.

sransari said:

I can't imagine why one would try gaming using a virtual machine vs a non-virtual machine. with boot camp, there's no reason to do so either.

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Sure there is. Rebooting your machine and shutting down your Mac stuff to play a game, especially if you're like me and you tab back and forth, also isn't a good option. The performance of virtual machines with graphics has increased dramatically. It's not quite so bad anymore.

Eh, I'll just continue to use Bootcamp...

I tried Parallels 7 and wasn't that fond of it. Now running W7P through BootCamp and couldn't be happier. The ONLY reason I need it is for work.

No thanks. Don't fancy having "optimized enhanced synchronised backwards synergy virus protection" or whatever crap they're trying to call it these days.

The stupid thing is. Parallels 9 = Paralles 8 = Parallels 7 = Parallels 6 = Parallels 5 = etc

They are the same package, with a new UI slapped on and a few "features" added on that slow your VM's to a crawl. Can't believe people ever actually pay for individual upgrades/versions.

Impressive..

Let's all pause for a moment to remember Virtual PC.

OK.... move it on

So for parallels 8 customers. We don't get enhanced support for a windows is that we bought parallels 8 for?

Honestly I am quite sick of this company.

Downloading now.

Head's up for European customers. If you choose to pay in Euro € it's €49.99 for the upgrade.

If you choose to pay in Sterling £ it's £34.99 which works out around €41, saving you €9.




You can pay in sterling, and still be in any other european country.

Esoteric changes and "Lets do Windows!"

Most of these changes will not affect everyday users of Mac.
The surrender to Windows is alarming at best...what were the Apple geeks thinking??????????
No changes to the problematic Apple Mail
No updating Copy/Paste unchanged since OS8 in the 1990's
No improvement to address book to add color or bold
No addingAUDIO to Quick Time recording
No improvements badly needed to Pages
PLUS...what printers will not longer print after this new OS...what a nice surprise that will be.
I WILL PASS

Detektiv-Pinky said:

It is amazing how much money people are prepared to invest to run Windows on a Mac. I think for most it would be much cheaper to buy a secondary machine instead of paying their yearly Parallels-tax...

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not everybody wants to waste the space and power on another ugly computer, especially for something used occasionally. i like minimal.

sransari said:

I can't imagine why one would try gaming using a virtual machine vs a non-virtual machine. with boot camp, there's no reason to do so either.

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I have two games that runs on XP that won't work with Windows Vista and newer even with the compatibility setting. I like having my Bootcamp at the latest version of Windows for newer games. Parallels works well with gaming in my unique use case.

djrod said:

Anyone know how is Android support in the new version, I can't find a change log!

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Just installed and in the new setup you can choose android

I'm interested in the support horror stories from other users. I've had nothing but excellent support from them--going so far as to give me a phone call when they didn't quite understand what I was seeing on my side.

As far as gaming goes, if the game is 3-4 years old, it works great in a virtual machine. But otherwise bootcamp is the way to go.

I do a lot of n tier architecte development. Real handy to carry around a db and an app tier in my MacBook. And for that, bootcamp wouldn't work.

Parallels really does have excellent performance. On a 2012 MBP with i7 and SSD (non-retina), with Windows performance index is 6.8, held back only by graphics. CPU, memory, and disk are 7.5, 7.8, and 8.1. For a VM, that's astounding.

The Windows/Mac integration is excellent. I wouldn't give this up for dual boot. The most astonishing case involved iOS app development using Xamarin.iOS, using the Mac as build server but building the iOS app in Visual Studio on Windows. When I wanted to run the iOS app in the iOS simulator (on the Mac), running and debugging from Visual Studio, the combination of Parallels and Xamarin's Bonjour services loaded my iOS app into XCode's simulator and popped the simulator up as the active window. That's seamless integration. And if a web page doesn't display properly in Safari, Parallels has an IE button in Safari; I can click that and Parallels opens the same page in IE on Windows. Amazingly seamless.

Now, I just hope that Parallels 9 doesn't force me to use their Start button and Start menu in Windows 8. I like Windows 8 without the start button and menu. I also hope that the "complementary" security software is optional. It really sounds like Parallels is starting to add bloatware, just like all the Windows OEMs love to do. Hate that!