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Parallels Desktop 10 with OS X Yosemite and iCloud Drive Support Launches for Existing Customers

I stopped playing this subscription game 2 years ago.
Partly because of my aged 2008 Mac Book Pro.

But I sure miss when Fusions and Parallels used to fight it out for customers.

Sadly, VMWare seems to have given up and Parallels has little competition anymore or they would never pull this $50 upgrade garbage.

You always had the option to wait for a Mac Bundle but what Parallels does now is give them last year's version.
How nice of them.
 
Parallels is not great to be honest, it's only benefit is connivence. You can always use bootcamp for free and switching is pretty fast on a flash based mac especially if you install bootchamp.

Parallels is good software but not providing free updates is just terrible from a usability standpoint as keeping windows functional should really be a microsoft thing.
 
CrazyForApple said:
I never tried Parallels but is it worth it?
Click to expand...

I used it for several years up until version 9. It is undoubtedly a very elegant program, but I found it to be painfully slow. Maybe it was the hardware, an older Mac Mini and a 13" MacBook, but whatever, it was just not practical. Buying it amounts to an annual subscription in practical terms, since increased speed is promised with each iteration.

It would probably run faster on my 2013 Mac Pro but the virtual machine would take up a lot of space on the SSD. (Anyone buying a MP 6,1 is STRONGLY urged to BTO and get the biggest SSD you can afford).

Since it looks like I will (sigh) need Windows again at least on a limited basis, I think I will try Bootcamp this time.
 
abugbitme said:
I'm not paying for any more of their "upgrades". Had I known that it was going to cost me 100 to 200 bucks a year for their software on my machines I never would have bought it to start with.

Back to Bootcamp for the very few things i need to do in Windows, or maybe I'll buy and older PC for next to nothing.
Click to expand...

Valid point if you don't use it. If you do, you are complaining about a cost many people send on a night out, monthly cable, or monthly cell phone.
 
Zimmy68 said:
But I sure miss when Fusions and Parallels used to fight it out for customers.
Click to expand...

Ditto that... I actually wouldn't mind paying a yearly charge for upgrades (but I'd still want to purchase the versions, not subscribe) if we were getting real upgrades. We haven't seen real performance enhancements or extended functionality in several versions, I like getting a new version of OS X each year, but I think this annual cycle has also created an eco system where developers can try and push a new version for each new OS X version, it seems (in my mind at least) that when OS X was released every 18-24 months that VMWare, Parallels and other companies (Roxio Toast I'm looking at you) had to come up with more up there sleeve than "Hey look it works with the new operating system!"

There's even some pretty low hanging fruit that I would pay for. One example is for VMWare to have real drivers and support for Mac OS X 10.6 as a guest OS to support better graphics, audio, etc...
 
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I know many people here don't like this because of the regular updates.

The truth is if you don't want to pay for it theres VirtualBox. It isn't as good, but it's there and it's free.

Parallels and VMware both upgrade their software annually. They are both unreplaceable if you use it for work, and are worth their $50 upgrade. Increased performance, and tighter integration.

If those two things are of no value to you, then VirtualBox is actually a very usable tool, at a sweet price.
 
The Mercurian said:
If you wanted to upgrade from Mountain Lion to MAvericks you had to upgrade Parallels to version 9 to still use it as version 8 would not run on Mavericks. THey even had an agressive marketing/email campaign telling us you needed to upgrade to Parallels 9 on Mavericks. So there was no choice if you wanted to make the free upgrade from ML to Mav
Click to expand...

That's not true. I run Parallels 8 on my Mavericks machine with no trouble whatsoever.
 
jontech said:
I migrated to vmware fusion due to parallels licensing model and yearly upgrade fees. I'm much happier
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For what it's worth VMWare says for personal use you can use one licence on multiple machines.

Can I use a single license on more than one Mac?
VMware Fusion for personal use:
You may install and use VMware Fusion for personal, non-commercial use on any Apple-branded products running Mac OS X ("Mac Computer") that you own or control.
- See more at: https://www.vmware.com/support/fusion/faq/licensing#sthash.WlpwtMe9.dpuf​

I used to use Fusion, but there was a bug in 3 that caused significant system slowdown on certain macs and I switched to Parallels. I've usually upgraded every other version. Whenever a version stopped running on the current OS. However they have been adding less useful features IMO, more bloat, and questionable business practices. I'm looking at you auto installation of parallels access (I think they prompt you now but at release, bam you had parallels access no questions asked). I'm thinking next time I eye up a sale on Fusion I might switch.
 
Yikes, it feels like, "Gotta pay my house payment, gotta pay my phone bill, and gotta pay for my Parallels upgrade."

Too much, too often.

I'll stick with Bootcamp. With an SSD my computer reboots quickly and OS X conveniently reopens most things to where I left them.
 
Give Up running Win on Mac

I got so tired of constantly being forced to purchase new Parallels/VM Ware every time OSX had a major update that I just gave up on the idea of running Windows on my Mac. I just bought a reasonably priced Windows machine for the times when I need it and at work.
 
kaltsasa said:
Ripoff is a strong word. The product does what it advertises. Less value than Fusion, sure.
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I agree that they their product is noteworthy and worth the purchase for 1st timers. But their marketing for the upgrade packages is just.. unacceptable for average consumers..
p.s. I have been using PD8 for 2years and I am still actively using it and it still worked like a charm.
 
tywebb13 said:
Upgraded to 10 today.
It seems much faster than version 9 running a Windows 8.1 Pro VM.
So I'm happy with 10 so far.
Click to expand...

Upgraded to 10, too. - Coming from Windows 8.0 Pro with Parallels 9. Seems to be working nicely. Hard to tell how much of a speed bump there is or not (my machine is pretty fast anways and P9 with W8 was really fast already).

All i can say it seems to be working nicely, fast and smooth. Latest elementaryOS also working.

If it is really up to 30% more efficient on the battery, it might be VERY interesting. - Just installed it so can't say much about battery life yet, but for me that would be an important plus.
 
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iSee said:
Yikes, it feels like, "Gotta pay my house payment, gotta pay my phone bill, and gotta pay for my Parallels upgrade."

Too much, too often.

I'll stick with Bootcamp. With an SSD my computer reboots quickly and OS X conveniently reopens most things to where I left them.
Click to expand...

I can't say I disagree with that, I don't the value is there. Honestly I don't use Parallels at home all that much anymore (and work pays for my license there). I may just uninstall it completely. Like you I've got my MBP and Desktop loaded with SSDs for boot drives, it takes longer to do the 14GB memory check when the computer POSTs then it does to finish booting the OS.

----------
SenorVvangIstMoi said:
I agree that they their product is noteworthy and worth the purchase for 1st timers. But their marketing for the upgrade packages is just.. unacceptable for average consumers..
p.s. I have been using PD8 for 2years and I am still actively using it and it still worked like a charm.
Click to expand...

There's no question they've got the slick marketing business down. The value is probably less then Fusion these days, all things considered. If someone asked me what to get right now there's no question I'd point them toward Fusion. But the product works well, marketing aside.

I feel the same way about Raxco as I do about Parallels these days, PerfectDisk and PerfectUpdater are superior products but by the nine Raxco has got the used car dealer smarm down to a science.
 
alexgowers said:
Parallels is not great to be honest, it's only benefit is connivence. You can always use bootcamp for free and switching is pretty fast on a flash based mac especially if you install bootchamp.

Parallels is good software but not providing free updates is just terrible from a usability standpoint as keeping windows functional should really be a microsoft thing.
Click to expand...

I would disagree, as a user who is working on OS X, Windows and Linux, i would be rebooting all day. Besides the time factor, even with SSD, it would be so incredibly annoying to swap data etc. It's so incredibly efficient to have all three running simultaneously, copy/paste functionality etc. - As usual, it depends very much how you are using it. I could hardly live without virtualization these days, no matter which software (parallels, virtualbox, vmware) you are using, that's more of a personal taste. If you're fine with reboting, just do so but that doesn't make the virtualisation software bad.
 
At this rate they may as well just make their pricing a yearly subscription model. Apple isn’t showing any signs of stopping this release-a-new-OS-every-year deal.
 
When I bought my Mac I thought I would need a VM to run things like MS access, or IE to access some ancient proprietary sites I need for work... but the better solution was to keep a windows machine running headless, and login with Jump Desktop... When I'm on the local network it's basically like running local... and even if the interface is a tiny bit slower remotely, the processing power is still there for number crunching regardless, and doesn't drain resources on my Mac.

The only things I wouldn't try to remotely run are games... But if I was into games I would want a real gaming machine anyway...

And the best thing about using Jump? I can access everything from my iPad and iPhone, even my mac...
 
I have been pretty satisfied with the Parallels updates. There have always been speed increases, and in my opinion it's pretty fast even compared to bootcamp, and even for 3D games.
And for what it does I think the price is pretty low.
 
GeneralChang said:
At this rate they may as well just make their pricing a yearly subscription model. Apple isn’t showing any signs of stopping this release-a-new-OS-every-year deal.
Click to expand...
No one's forcing you to upgrade Parallels every year. Version 9 will still work and get patches for Yosemite just like Parallels 8 still worked and got patches for Mavericks.

Upgrading every second year is normally sufficient. I'm faring well with that. It's not as if they are adding crucial must-have features with each annual update…
 
Fatboy71 said:
You might be able to upgrade to version 10 for free, have a look on this link:

http://www.parallels.com/techguarantee2014/

It mentions:

"Customers who purchased and activated a copy of Parallels Desktop 9 for Mac from the Parallels Online Store or an authorised reseller on or after August 1, 2014 through October 15, 2014, are eligible for an upgrade to the next version of Parallels Desktop for Mac at no charge, subject to certain conditions"
Click to expand...

So basically if you bought it 2 weeks before the new release. Great. :(
 
Janichsan said:
No one's forcing you to upgrade Parallels every year. Version 9 will still work and get patches for Yosemite just like Parallels 8 still worked and got patches for Mavericks.

Upgrading every second year is normally sufficient. I'm faring well with that. It's not as if they are adding crucial must-have features with each annual update…
Click to expand...

That's usually how I've fared, 50 bucks every 2 years isn't unreasonable for such a complex piece of software. However, that Parallels Access business they pulled annoyed me enough that if a great deal on Fusion came along I'd be interested in trying the other team for a spell.
 
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