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Done with Parallels

D

DTF

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 23, 2010
48
2
I had enough of the company and their product. The final straw was them changing my forum posts to make their product look good. I upgraded to the new ver 6, (which was my first mistake, ver 6 isn't ready for prime time). I started having network problems which today resulted in me not being able to access the network from my VM. After 2 hours working with them on line their suggestions led no ware and I've since downgraded to ver 5 so I could continue to do my work.

I'm surprised I was able to get a hold of anyone as they seem to not want to really help people that buy their product. The last straw was when I posted in their forum of my problems and also included my view on the product. They changed my forum posts and removed anything that made them look bad. My problem was not conveyed by their change so it really won't get anywhere.

I know other companies do this, I just lose a lot of respect for companies that do this. I'm going to check out Fusion and see how that goes.

I've been a follower for a long time of these forums and my first post turns out to be a flame on a company. Sheesh. I guess I just needed to vent.

Any other stories like that?
 
Well I can't say that I've had problems with Parallels to the extent you seem to, but I do constantly encounter issues trying to connect to my network (or the Internet) using any VM that isn't Ubuntu 10.04. Seems like Linux integration is seamless and anything else requires a bit of head-scratching. And Haiku, forget it...won't even boot.

Also, humor me: have you read this article? It seems as though across the board, Parallels edges out Fusion. Just a little in some cases, but still seems to be the better product.

Though it is understandably irritating that they'd go and impinge upon your free speech like they did. Perhaps that's a sign that your problems are anomalous and they just don't know how to help you...rather underhanded no matter how you spin it.
 
Meldar,
I took a look at that article and for the most part the functional advantages to parallels won't apply to me. I just use windows for web development. The speed tests were done before the latest releases of both products.

I don't fault a company when there are bugs; I only fault them on how they handle it. Even if a company has the best software if they won't support it when problems arise it really is worthless, and that's what I'm finding with this company.

The popularity of parallels I think is due more to the fact that Apple sold it in their stores, it's been offered with Mac software bundles. After searching through forums the general consensus is that parallels is buggy and fusion is more stable, and parallels is mostly non-existent when it comes times to support their product.
 
I see what you mean.

As I mentioned, I'm not 100% satisfied with Parallels either, though in my case it's more a compatibility thing - I'm really into niche and/or uncommon OSs, and even when I try and use something similar in construction to WinXP or Ubuntu (that is, compatible with my chipset), Parallels won't boot the VM. I run Windows 95, CRUX, Puppy Linux, btLinux, xPud, and Ubuntu 10.04 without problems, though I cannot for the life of me get the internet to work on anything but Ubuntu (where it appears to be pre-configured). Haiku, Win3.1, openSUSE, and NetBSD won't even load into Parallels. It's like it doesn't even see the ISO.

I've yet to actually post on their support forums, but all the documentation I've read is either really vague or provides "solutions" that don't work. One person I know, who swears by Parallels, told me simply that if something won't work, I should "stop trying because there's no point."

So if web development is your thing, I guess you don't really need all the high-power integration features of Parallels, then. Perhaps I'll have to check out Fusion as well, since I can't really offer advice on using it as an alternative/upgrade (not to mention I fail at web dev).

Best of luck to ya :)
 
I'm done with them too

I'm done with them over their so called support as well. After installing the Parallels 6 update, I wanted to check out their mobile feature on my iPhone. My issue was that I couldn't get logged in to their mobile server with my registered account. I did the online chat thing with support for about an hour, where they had me do some very windozy things, like turning off the firewall and antivirus, and ultimately uninstall/reinstall. Reinstall actually fixed the login issue, but it broke my activation key! Now I can see my Mac from the mobile, but I can't start any VMs. They say my activation key should work, but it doesn't - guess I could try reinstalling again. At one time they said "we're ready to consider your refund request". I said "Please do". Haven't heard from them since.

I've used both Parallels and Fusion. Parallels is usually a bit ahead in benchmarks, especially re Video. In terms of functionality & features, I see no great difference between the two. I'm going to write off my $50 upgrade to Parallels 6 and spend another $10 for the Fusion Competitive upgrade...

I have to admit that in 4 years this is the first time I have needed support, and the product has always worked well. This one support experience left such a bad taste in my mouth that I'll never use their product again.
 
I've had no problems at all with v6 on my MBP.
I think the product is faster than v5.

I have been able to get several Astronomy-related applications running
in Version 6, which would not run in 5.
 
DTF said:
I had enough of the company and their product. The final straw was them changing my forum posts to make their product look good. I upgraded to the new ver 6, (which was my first mistake, ver 6 isn't ready for prime time). I started having network problems which today resulted in me not being able to access the network from my VM. After 2 hours working with them on line their suggestions led no ware and I've since downgraded to ver 5 so I could continue to do my work.

I'm surprised I was able to get a hold of anyone as they seem to not want to really help people that buy their product. The last straw was when I posted in their forum of my problems and also included my view on the product. They changed my forum posts and removed anything that made them look bad. My problem was not conveyed by their change so it really won't get anywhere.

I know other companies do this, I just lose a lot of respect for companies that do this. I'm going to check out Fusion and see how that goes.

I've been a follower for a long time of these forums and my first post turns out to be a flame on a company. Sheesh. I guess I just needed to vent.

Any other stories like that?
Click to expand...

i understand your frustration, however fusion is about 4 times slower (in my opinion anyway).
i use parallels 5, dont want to get 6 yet...
 
I had no problems with ver 5. It was fast and ran great. Ver 6 was even faster and I liked some of the features but it seemed a little buggy in addition to the major problem I had with the networking. When dealing with them you just get the feeling that the company doesn't care about you at all. And the fastest product is still no good if you can't get support when something goes wrong.

Panch0,
I haven't been using the product as long as you have but this is the first time I've needed support as well and it was a major FAIL. Support is what really separates the good companies from the bad ones.

Odd addition to my story, I replied to the thread in their forum and flamed them for making changes to my entries and actually made reference to the fact they are changing them. That entry actually made it in with out any change. Go figure ...
 
"Oh great, he's onto us...let's hope this doesn't end up on any third-party sites..."

-

Well good luck with whatever solution you end up with. I think VM experiences differ majorly from person to person (as evidenced by posts here) and ultimately depend on what exactly you're doing...having never tried running Win7 I can't offer any perspective on that particular issue.
 
Meldar said:
Well good luck with whatever solution you end up with. I think VM experiences differ majorly from person to person (as evidenced by posts here) and ultimately depend on what exactly you're doing
Click to expand...

Yes, I think this is true. For instance, I like the stability and support of Fusion, but I can easily see how the performance and features edge of Parallels would be better for others. I am glad there are options with differing strengths such as Fusion, Parallels, VirtualBox, and even Wine. =)
 
Turian.Spectre said:
i understand your frustration, however fusion is about 4 times slower (in my opinion anyway).
i use parallels 5, dont want to get 6 yet...
Click to expand...

Can't imagine what Parallels must run like, since on my primary MBP (with enough RAM and an SSD) the Win 7 VM and Office 2010 applications run like I'm on a native Win machine. I love it.
 
Jaro65 said:
Can't imagine what Parallels must run like, since on my primary MBP (with enough RAM and an SSD) the Win 7 VM and Office 2010 applications run like I'm on a native Win machine. I love it.
Click to expand...

Oh great, another Parallels -v- Fusion debate.

Anyway, Parallels runs like greased lightning here. I got V5 earlier this year in a MacUpdate bundle and then just upgraded to V6. I've had no problems thus far with Win7 Ultimate both accessing my Boot Camp installation and a separate VM. It works as advertised.

Prior to Parallels 5 I was a Fusion 3 user but there I did have major problems. It tended to render OS X entirely useless while it was running which sort of defeated its purpose. I hope it's improved since the I last time I used it.
 
Didn't mean to possibly spark a debate. I didn't have a problem with Parallels 5; it ran fine. I do believe ver 6 was even faster and it seemed must more responsive than Fusion does. My issue was with the support that Parallels provides it customers and that I found Parallels 6 to be buggy with a nasty network issue that they don't seem to know how to fix.

I just think their support stinks and they really don't care much about their customer. Which really is part of the equation when you purchase a software product.
 
Meldar said:
Also, humor me: have you read this article? It seems as though across the board, Parallels edges out Fusion. Just a little in some cases, but still seems to be the better product.
Click to expand...
Mind you that this is quite old data. Fusion 3.1 has had some serious performance improvements. Also, the benchmark seems to only focus on Windows. Parallels is very good at running Windows in a vm but other operating systems can get quite difficult. VMware Fusion is much better at that. The other thing to remember is usability and stability. Performance is not very useful if the vm is constantly crashing or having strange problems. Again, Fusion seems to be better at this since it uses proven technology (VMware has been developing it for years so it has matured a lot; Parallels hasn't got the same amount of years of experience). When I/O becomes important Fusion also seems to be the one to choose (it's faster in this area).

All in all they are both great products that have advantages, disadvantages and problems. They're not perfect so choose the one that fits your needs and you love working with. VMware support can be troublesome as well.

Another player that seems to becoming bigger and bigger as time goes by: the free VirtualBox. Unfortunately due to Oracle buying Sun this vm product has a somewhat unclear future. Oracle seems to be doing something regarding development unlike Solaris, OpenSolaris and OpenOffice.org. But Oracle is very unpredictable.
 
I've V5 for about 3 weeks prior upgrading the V6 and both did not have any problem. V6 is a bit faster but not by far. Happy with Parallels so far.
 
Ive run Parallels 5 and I did call them to get my update code to 6 for free which went smoothly surprisingly...but honestly they have the worst support out of anyone, reminds me of the "Peggy Discover Card" commercial. They come from some far away country where they were taught just enough english to read the script in front of them and do basic troubleshooting that a monkey could do. I have yet to install 6 because I have very little need for windows and its a pia to install and setup everything and im thinking about spending the $10 to try vmware but again with the pia setup of windows and the vm. Honestly, I say just run bootcamp and deal with it.
 
DTF said:
I just think their support stinks and they really don't care much about their customer. Which really is part of the equation when you purchase a software product.
Click to expand...

The few times in the past when I had to deal with Parallels support via their website and their forums I had no problems. However, after upgrading to V6 through another MacUpdate promo I was highly annoyed to see that they were promising our V6 keys in "6 to 8 weeks"!

After a barrage of complaints from customers and pressure from MacUpdate they amended that and most of us got our new keys the next day.

If their support is lacking I hope they will work on getting it somewhere closer to in line with the excellent quality of the product itself.
 
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