Parallels Desktop 13 for Mac Comes With High Sierra Support and Touch Bar Integration

[MrGimper]

No thanks, I will stick with VMware Fusion Pro.

I'm a big VMware fan and use their products daily, but unfortunately Fusion is orders-of-magnitude slower than Parallels when it comes to graphics.
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The yearly gouging was awful. Then, after they changed their licensing scheme and enforced one copy per machine (meaning I could no longer run the same licensed version at work and at home) I was forced to buy another copy for the office because I was in a bind when this change took effect. As soon as I could after that I switched to Fusion where they allow the same licensed copy on up to 3 (I think) machines you own. Those greedy Parallels folks don’t care that I can’t be in two places at the same time, and only an idiot would pay these people *twice* every year for upgrades. They turned me from a user to a staunch advocate against them.

Wasn't the fact you could run the same licence on 2 machines a "quirk" and not actually legit anyway?

 

[biffuz]

Parallels and Vmware have become the Mac's yearly tax.
Well, goodbye to them - Virtualbox is fine for my needs, the only reason left for Parallels/Vmware was the ability to use the Bootcamp install but the Win10 licensing is broken and they never fixed it. This time I'll just stick to Bootcamp or VB. I could even buy a second Win10 license and have both, it will repay itself in a couple of years anyway, but I don't really need it atm.

 

[MLVC]

So HS Beta and Parallels weren't a success on my iMac, I downgraded (which nearly killed the iMac but that's a different story). I'm tempted to go to the HS beta again now, but does anybody know how the HS Beta works on a Fusion drive? I understood that were issues a couple of betas ago, but I'm not up to date on that now.

And I'm stuck with Parallels, I don't like VMware, and unfortunately most of my work software is Windows only.

 

[drumcat]

Oracle VirtualBox. $0.

It isn't great, but if you are after performance you should be dual-booting.

I run my hosting at home using a Mac mini, a vbox vm of 16.04, and that's it. I can put my web hosting on any other machine and point my router at it. I can run Windows, but not games. And that is worth that price of admission.

 

[JoelBC]

One other point...have they the problem with FaceTime in the Parallels causes the FaceTime camera (ie. iSight) not to work which is a a real PITA for me...anyone have any real world experience with this?

 

[hvfsl]

VMware and Parallels are both missing out on an important use for their software, running legacy Mac OS X apps. Sure you can run older versions of Mac OS X on there, but it doesn't support hardware acceleration, which makes apps like Photoshop run a lot slower than they should. Plus it would be great if they can get rid of the Mac desktop when running in a VM (like they do when running a Windows VM), for a more seamless experience.

Ether that or Apple needs a way of doing this in the OS as it could stop many users from upgrading in future as newer versions of Mac OS X will stop working with a lot of apps people regularly use (like Adobe CS5/6).

 

[ValerioParisMitritsakis]

That moment you look at the mac UI with the windows UI nested inside of it and realise you'd rather look at windows

Yeah, because there is nothing more intuitive than trying to figure out if a setting exists in the "Metro" equivalent control panel or you have to bring up the original Control Panel. Also after all this time the still have not copied the "Locations" feature of the network settings from the Mac and you have to fiddle around with the network settings every time you move to a different network.

OS X, or whatever it's called now, is OK. I wish they'd get rid of the title bars though at the top of the screen and put everything back into the dock and program spaces. The bar at the top was great in 1984. Now, not so much, especially on a big screen.

As other people have said, you can hide the menu bar and btw it's hidden by default on full screen apps.

Sometimes I wish Apple would slow down the new version releases so these companies didn't have an excuse for the annual upgrade shakedown.

What if I told you that you are not obligated to upgrade every year and follow Apple's schedule? Apple even provides security updates for 3 generations old OS's so you will not feel insecure, you'll just miss out on the new features. Plus someone has to fund Parallels to keep making their products.

 

[ivan86]

And the moment I see people using Windows in a VM on a Mac to get their work done, it always becomes so obvious that even in 2017, the Mac - just like a Linux system - isn't able to fully replace a Windows desktop. There's always some work-related software missing.

I am missing only two apps: one for accounting, another for tax reports. Use them once per week and 5 times per year respectively. Windows does come handy in some more occasions once in a while for IT work as well.

95% macOS only is good enough for me.

 

[mem16421]

Lately I have just been using Veertu Desktop. It works great, low overhead and runs Visio just fine.

 

[Stella]

No thanks, I'll just stick with the real thing ( a windows box ), together with my mac.

Parallels just gets too expensive upgrading each year.

 

[barkomatic]

No thanks, I'll just stick with the real thing ( a windows box ), together with my mac.

Parallels just gets too expensive upgrading each year.

Exactly, I think I'll just run Windows on a PC as well.

 

[Phil in ocala]

What Ridiculous!

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This is the middle of 2017....does anyone need to use Windows OS anymore?????

 

[ugahairydawgs]

Sometimes I wish Apple would slow down the new version releases so these companies didn't have an excuse for the annual upgrade shakedown.

You don't have to update every year. Parallels does OS update support for 2 years, so Parallels 12 should be getting High Sierra support as well. Something like virtualization is a very specific need and to be able to do that for $50 every two years is not a very high price to pay for quality software.

 

[EnderBeta]

Thats only because they don't have dark mode turned on and the dock is way to big I cannot stand the bright white.

One thing that has bugged me about Sierra is that the notifications section when expanded is always in light mode.

 

[Mr. Dee]

You are starting to sense VMWare and Parallels are both in collusion every time this year. It really is time to go back to VirtualBox.

 

[applepuree]

Well mine "auto updated" today no warning that I saw that it would only run for a month. But OMG wasn't it slow. It took about 10 minutes from start to windows being loaded, and then forever to do anything. Even though I get mine usually as a NFR version direct from Parallels, I decided to remove it. For the 1 or 2 times a year I actually use it, and thats normally for windows update, its not worth the hassle.
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I am missing only two apps: one for accounting, another for tax reports. Use them once per week and 5 times per year respectively. Windows does come handy in some more occasions once in a while for IT work as well.

95% macOS only is good enough for me.

I hear theres a good windows accountancy program from Ukraine

Seriously though, there are Mac accountancy and (depending on country) tax software around. I think Quicken is back in the mac market, then there Monkey Business and others. However it depends to a large extent on what you need to do and willingness to adapt to a different work flow. I see your in Berlin, give the business team at Apple Kurfürstendamm 26 a call 030 590 090 000 they can help for sure if its business related.

 

[Guy Clark]

And so the annual con continues.
Every release is supposed to be better don't you believe it. I upgraded to PD 12 and it slowed the virtual machines down to snails pace. Rolled back to PD 11 and demanded a refund.

 

[Stella]

Exactly, I think I'll just run Windows on a PC as well.

Especially because Apple won't support my MacBook running windows 10 on bootcamp, despite the fact its quite capable of doing so. Also, my windows box ( which I built myself ) is way more powerful than any current Mac, and yet still hundreds of dollars cheaper!

 

[springsup]

Elsewhere, Parallels claims over 30 new additional tools can be found in version 13 that simplify everyday tasks on Mac and Windows. They include a drive cleaner, video conversion, a file archiver, a GIF creator, a video downloader, Do Not Sleep and Do Not Disturb modes, a Lock Screen, and the ability to temporarily hide files on the desktop, amongst many others.

This is why I use VMWare. 99% of a Parallels installation is crap-ware that you never wanted or needed.

 

[GIZBUG]

How does this company continue to stay in business with these lack luster upgrades, and extremely high prices, every year? Just amazed! Are they not blind to what users are saying about these weak upgrades?

 

[Steve121178]

My days of needing to run a Windows VM on my personal Macs to complete certain tasks are long over. In fact, my iPad Pro can do most of what my Macs can.

 

[ksnell]

you are joking right? so much inconsistencies and misalignments in windows 10 to even like anything about its interface!

I wouldn't go that far. Windows 10 has made major gains on MacOS. More functional and customizable. The only things I would consider Apple winning on are Photos and iMessage integration.

 

[Aston441]

Bar at the top can be hidden in macOS.

But then the time and useful info is hidden as well and there's no tool or way to drop it in the dock. Also, and I didn't make this clear, the MENUS are WAY WAY far away, when they could be in the program space, necessitating LONG mouse drags.
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This is the middle of 2017....does anyone need to use Windows OS anymore?????

Unfortunately anytime you have to interact with corporate Dbags or Boomers - who are more or less the same thing - you need windows.

 

[rpe33]

That moment you look at the mac UI with the windows UI nested inside of it and realise you'd rather look at windows

That moment when you use Windows and realize you'd rather use Mac OS.

 

[TechZeke]

And the moment I see people using Windows in a VM on a Mac to get their work done, it always becomes so obvious that even in 2017, the Mac - just like a Linux system - isn't able to fully replace a Windows desktop. There's always some work-related software missing.

In the work realm, there's a lot of specialized arbitrary software more than anything. I mean, at my work they have a separate software just for Supervisors to approve timesheets, even though everyone uses the website to input everything. It makes no sense.

Then you have random specialized scheduling software, and the random software a contractor uses so that you can read their data.

95% of the rest of the time, I could easily get by using Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat Pro, and AutoCAD for Mac.

The best way I've found instead of using a VM is making an external Windows bootcamp on something like a Samsung T3 SSD. Doesn't take up internal disk space and runs just like native windows.