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Parallels 4.0 Promises Significant Performance Improvements

Damn I've been trying to get Fusion for the last few days but for one reason or another I have not been able to. First the vmware kept sending me the wrong password for my account. Then it wanted me to give a billing address even though I wanted to pay with paypal. So I decided to go to bestbuy for it and they didn't have it yesterday lol.

I'll have to try this one out.
 
I purchased it this morning and have been using the new version since morning. It's definitely a lot faster and so far so good. I purchased the upgrade since I had 3.0. Been with Parallels since they first came about. I had installed Fusion a while back to give it a shot but I didn't really like it that much.

Running 1080p Apple Trailer on my Windows XP VM is a breeze! :)

I am running this on my new 24" iMac at work. (2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, 500 GB Drive, ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO w/256MB GDDR3).
 
The 4.0 RC candidates totally borked my 3.0 VM by the way. I haven't used PD 4.0 since RC1 because of this. VMWare keeps on kicking though.
 
Support for multiple cores?

Can someone confirm that this version of Parallels recognizes multiple cores under windows and uses them appropriately? That's been a dealbreaker for me.

Thanks.
 
does this version support compviz on linux hosts e.g. ubuntu 8.10 now that v4 supports opengl
 
Parallels User

I currently use v3.0. I spent a while looking at Fusion vs. Parallels, and chose Parallels in the end.

I give it two thumbs up on my MacBook Pro. It's quick, works well, handles the management of resources well, and boots quickly.

Improved Copy and Paste will be greatly appreciated.

I'm not sure I'll notice the 20-30% performance improvement per se (I only use it for a handful of Applications that I can't get on the Apple) but the integration has been good. If only Quicken could catch up their software for the OS X side vs. the Windows side.

I've been told you can use Boot Camp + Parallels, so that you can launch natively into your second operating system, or as a virtual machine. Making it highly flexible. Boot for games, or boot for easy compatibility. I didn't do that, but if there is significant performance improvement maybe this won't be necessary.

I'll be looking to upgrade to 4.0 but maybe in a few months. The software has been very robust, so no fears there, but after the last few iPhone debacles, I'm more cautious than ever before. Even from software vendors I trust.
 
John Jacob said:
:( I'm voting negative on this thread...

...because I just bought VmWare a few days ago. And even if VmWare releases a new edition that competes with the new version of Parallels, I'll have to pay to upgrade to that one.
Click to expand...

I at least appreciate that VMWare offered free upgrades to 2.0 from 1.0. I bought 1.0 for full price, then 2.0 came out in beta; so I thought "Crap, should have waited." Then, once 2.0 was final, they give it away to 1.0 users. Given all the revisions Parallels has had, I was happy I decided on VWWare.
 
I'll be sticking to VirtualBox until Parallels or VMware do a better job of Solaris and OpenSolaris guest support.
 
I'm sure 4.0 will be good, but I'm thinking it might be worth waiting a few months before upgrading. Parallels always seem to have a bunch of bugs in earlier versions.
 
I've been using Parallel's 3.0 for about 8 months now and have no complaints except for the cut/paste features and the constant windows image being size being increased (compressor fixes it but annoying to run).

Parallel gives me the ability to use my macbook pro as a work computer.

Downloading 4.0 right now will give feedback if there is any dramatic differences for me.
 
John Jacob said:
:( I'm voting negative on this thread...

...because I just bought VmWare a few days ago. And even if VmWare releases a new edition that competes with the new version of Parallels, I'll have to pay to upgrade to that one.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, that makes sense. :rolleyes: Your bad foresight is definitely a good reason to not like progression. Gosh, how could they? They should of contacted you to see when it was a good time to release this new version so it could fit your needs.

Seriously, it's not that hard. A quick Google search would tell you everything you need to know about a new release. Maybe you could contact them and get a free upgrade.
 
VMware - all the way...

I have been using VMware for work (on windows) and being able to use those same instances on my Mac with Fusion has been great. I could not do that with Parallels.:(
 
Does support for direct x and opengl mean that I don't need to use bootcamp to play games and that all games can be played under Parallels?
 
Does anyone know if I can run the Parallels 4.0 trial from the Boot Camp partition I'm currently running Fusion from? I moved from Parallels to Fusion some time ago, but I'd like to try Parallels 4.0 - without messing up what I already have going with Fusion. Possible?
 
Yeah quite a few people stayed up late last night to get the website and everything working. The official release was 12:01a PST.

I was personally sleeping like a little baby at the time, so I have no idea if there were problems getting the page to update. It's up now, though.

To confirm, weckart linked the right page for downloading the trial. You get the activation key from the same place. If anyone has questions about the new version, I'll probably stop in a few times today to check this thread. A lot of stuff can be answered just by checking out the features page, though.
 
Really think this should be a free update to all version 3 users. Not against paying for features and effort on the part of a developer, but in my opinion this is the version that 3 should have always been, and never was.
 
Biggest plus for me is 64-bit guest OS support. I really prefer Parallels to Fusion (I own both, but have used Parallels since the initial release), but the lack of 64-bit guest OS support would eventually become a hindrance to me (once I move to the Mac Pro and Vista x64). But now I am covered. :)
 
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