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I feel virtualization of Windows on a Mac is becoming more and more an old fashioned niche.

If you really need to run Windows and are willing to pay for a hefty subscription, maybe Windows 365 is an easier option?

For me, at least, windows virtualization is a must-have until Microsoft gets their **** together with Excel for Mac. Just let me use the keyboard to navigate menus already dammit.
 
Funny, I just bought his like last week and now they want fifty bucks.

Actually, it's not so funny. :(
I've been in that situation before with Parallels. You need to get the original license refunded, that's how they handle it.
 
After buying an M1 Air and finding that there are still a couple of light, Windows-only apps I need when away from my desktop, I bought a cheap (<$300) Hyundai laptop with Windows Home. My desktop virtualization platform is Fusion and I am curious to see what they come up with.
 
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That's true but for some software it's needed. I'm using for example CalMan and Colorspace to calibrate displays and TV's and they only run in Windows sadly.
Have you tried CodeWeavers' CrossOver? Let's you run any Windows application without virtualizing the whole OS. Runs pretty good and in my case I've needed for that specific one or two Windows applications.
 
O365 is not the same as Windows. Windows is an OS whereas O365 os a suite of office applications
I think he really literally meant windows 365, which is an OS on the cloud. Not office 365, which is the suite of office applications...
 
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If you need to run windows/apps on mac doesnt wine or virtualbox cut it if you want to save some buck.?
Do Wine or Virtualbox support running ARM windows on M1 Macs? That is what Parallels is bringing to the table along with added performance and stability. Those features are worth more money to people who need them.
 
Can you virtualize MACOS with this on an M1 Mac mini?? I.E. run macOS in a VM?
 
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The upgrade is only around 45USD so for me that already has a licens that I update when I need to it's great price range and I don't need to update every year even.

That's the approach I've taken as well; I haven't needed to always have the latest version of Parallels. At one point I was even permitted to upgrade a Parallels 9 license to 15. More significantly, my older licenses haven't been invalidated by the upgrades...

I don't have a problem with a subscription based model.

But still having to buy two licenses to use it on my Desktop and Laptop is beyond greed.

...so I have my main MBP using the most recent version of Parallels [that I need -- I skip releases], while my other Macs can continue using older Parallels versions. This may not work for you if all your Macs are on the latest version of macOS, though (i.e. your older licenses may not run on the latest & greatest macOS).
 
Can you virtualize MACOS with this on an M1 Mac mini?? I.E. run macOS in a VM?

Someone's probably answered by now (I'm still reading the first page), but yes no. I have Mojave running in a VM [EDIT: on an Intel Mac] for 32-bit apps.

EDIT: @Mike Boreham corrected me below. Sorry, I saw "run macOS in a VM" and replied, overlooking the "M1" part of the question.
 
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You can still buy a perpetual license, at least in Australia. Your mileage or kilometreage might vary.
You can in the UK too.
I've bought two copies as I think they may be the last examples that you can get a perpetual license for. Should be good for a few years to come.
 
This having to buy a new version or upgrade every year is getting ridiculous.
Sort of, Im still running version 15 on one computer and 16 on another, (for the next 30 seconds anyway).
 
There is every year a new version of OS X and a new version of Parallels - if you want to be up to date - there is no difference to the subscription.
I am still using Parallels version 10 with Catalina, so... actually there is a difference.
 
Someone's probably answered by now (I'm still reading the first page), but yes. I have Mojave running in a VM for 32-bit apps.

I tried to do this and got this screenshot

Screenshot 2021-08-10 at 14.14.57.png


When I clicked on the link for "the list of supported guest operating systems" I was taken to this page which says the only supported macOS guest for M1 Macs is Monterey when released.
 
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Just upgraded and tried the new version 17. I had been running a Windows 10 ARM VM on my earlier parallels, which automatically upgraded to Win 11 ARM and became really slow. This new upgrade makes it fly. The whole interface is just much more responsive and things open super fast.

I dislike their pricing model but no one does emulation on Mac better than Parallels.
 
I feel virtualization of Windows on a Mac is becoming more and more an old fashioned niche.

If you really need to run Windows and are willing to pay for a hefty subscription, maybe Windows 365 is an easier option?
You're not aware of all the uses for virtualization. I have two distinct uses for Parallels:
1) test my commercial software on the different platforms I support
2) run Windows-only software on my Mac. In my case, it's solely to run TurboTax Business - which, for whatever reason, has never supported macOS. A Windows 365 subscription would not help with those.
 
v17 will be subscription-only? How ridiculous! I was ready to upgrade when I read this article - never mind. As an aside, one of the advertised features for v17 is that it'll have Monterey compatibility. I'm running the Monterey beta and my Parallels version (16.5.1) works with Monterey. Hopefully that'll continue to be the case for those of us who don't want to buy into a subscription world.
 
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v17 will be subscription-only? How ridiculous! I was ready to upgrade when I read this article - never mind. As an aside, one of the advertised features for v17 is that it'll have Monterey compatibility. I'm running the Monterey beta and my Parallels version (16.5.1) works with Monterey. Hopefully that'll continue to be the case for those of us who don't want to buy into a subscription world.

I just went through the upgrade process and to the payment screen. There's no requirement to enter a subscription, so the article is wrong.
 
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I tried to do this and got this screenshot

[ IMG trimmed out ]

When I clicked on the link for "the list of supported guest operating systems" I was taken to this page which says the only supported macOS guest for M1 Macs is Monterey when released.

Thanks for the clarification... I read "macOS in a VM" from the original post and overlooked the "M1" criterion. I updated my original post.
 
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I've had the Windows 11 beta running in P16 (now P17) on my M1 Mini for a while now, and it's been fine. Really what's missing here is licensing for ARM Windows. Parallels says that when W11 is released that they'll be able to run it, but that's not all that's required. We need a way to be able to legitimately buy it.

I've said it before, but Parallels needs to negotiate with Microsoft to be able to be an "OEM" and sell licenses directly.
 
I see where you can upgrade to the Standard Edition for a one time charge of $49.99. From what I can tell the subscription is only for the Pro version. I'm just using it to run Quickbooks so Standard is fine with me.
 
I'm guessing Parallels' customer base is getting smaller while getting Windows to work well on Apple Silicon is harder. A price increase was inevitable. There are many other options available for mac users who need to run windows apps - continue using an intel mac, other virtualization software, cloud-hosted windows, and separate windows hardware. Each has advantages and drawbacks depending on use case. Some users may find that ARM Windows doesn't support the legacy software and hardware that are the reason they installed Windows in the first place.

Parallels has long been the most convenient virtualization option. It will still be the best choice for users who need to use mac and windows apps simultaneously or have both platforms on the same laptop to use in the field, etc. For many though, cloud-hosted windows (you can even go hourly on AWS WorkSpaces if your needs are light), or separate hardware will be more attractive with the new pricing.

I don't agree with this assessment. While there may be several other options for Mac users who need to run windows apps, none of them are as convenient, easy-to-use, and as performant as Parallels. Your average non-technical Joe certainly isn't going to try and run their Windows apps in AWS. Heck, I've got two CS degrees and I wouldn't even bother doing that. Why bother when for a few dollars and a few clicks you can be done with Parallels? Same thing with probably the most popular 'free' VM s/w option, VirtualBox. While not hard to install and set up, it's way more onerous than Parallels. And Parallels runs rings around VB in terms of performance.

I feel a bit bad for Parallels: they've got an excellent product, but with Apple's shift to M1, it's going to be pretty hard for them. Emulating x86 on ARM's got to be much slower than on x86. Don't know how they can ameliorate that except to implement, in ARM, Windows' device layer? There used to be an open source product called vine (does that still exist) that basically did that at the application API layer I think.
 
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