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Parallels Desktop 14 for Mac Offers Speed and Storage Gains, macOS Mojave Support

CmdrLaForge said:
But is it still updated? I thought I heard that it will be discontinued
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There was a lot of confusion because VMware fired the front-end UI team responsible for Fusion but the core Fusion team is still there. VMWare failed to explain this properly and so, a lot of people doesn't want to use their products of the fear that they'd be discontinued. This was one of the reasons I couldn't switch to Fusion a while ago when I was upset with Parallels.

Fusion is not discontinued at all and they seem to be working harder than Paralllels like they're the first to use Metal APIs.

Unfortunately, while Metal is great, it doesn't have enough support to fully get rid of OpenGL code in any VM products including Parallels. Apple needs to get off its butt and update Hypervisor and Metal to add more low level features.
 
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MikhailT said:
Of course not. Did you see Netflix do the same after they started inserting their own ads in their service for a group of folks?

No company is going to promise anything or admit any wrongdoings. They'd just sweep it under the rug as a A/B test, mistake, etc.

Your own actions is more valuable. If you're not happy, just vote with your money by switching (and hopefully stick with it) and speak out against them in the future.

I've tried but there was nothing to switch to that works for me. I spoke out against Parallels about this and so far, I haven't seen it again.
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That's what I expected, obviously. But without a sincere mea culpa they have lost me as a customer. Like I said, I will make the jump to Fusion as soon as PD13 stops working for me, so with Mojave I expect.
 
D.T. said:
Parallels does let you (VMW may do this too) virtualize a Bootcamp install which is kind of cool if you need to do a quick something in Windows (or it's just background tasks to your primary MacOS work), but I can access the Windows filesystem, most files are sync'ed and it's so quick to get into Bootcamp, that use case just doesn't come up for me.
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Exactly how I use it on my iMac! :)
 
I use Fusion and am happy with it. I didn’t upgrade Fusion when I upgraded to High Sierra. But it has still worked great. The point is you can sometimes, or maybe often, skip the upgrade tax each year.
 
dona83 said:
Do they still force you to buy a new version when you upgrade to a newer version of MacOS?
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Not sure they ever did. I ran Parallels 11 through at least 2 (3?) annual OSX updates. I only purchased Parallels 13 because I purchased a new MacBook Pro.
 
I think it was versions 7 8 & 9 I had. Then I wised up. Their business model is positively parasitic. To those who say we should not expect free software -> I don't pay Microsoft just so Office 2016 will work with High Sierra, or Mojave. Hell Office 2013 probably still works if I needed it to.
 
dan9700 said:
And they charge so much for existing users it should be a free upgrade
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Programmers like to eat hot meals and sleep indoors - the expectation of eternal free upgrades is unreasonable (and also originated in the good old days when software was a lot more expensive despite being a lot simpler).

The Parallels upgrades aren't bad if you buy it mainly to run Windows or LTS versions of Linux - unless you insist on installing the newest MacOS or Ubuntu as soon as it drops its usually 2-3 years between forced upgrades (each version usually lasts for about 2 OSX versions).

What I just don't get are the insane Parallels subscription prices - if you're an established user then its actually cheaper to pay for an upgrade every year, and the "pro" version has features that used to be in standard.

I also got emails this June offering an upgrade from my current 12 to version 13 at 25% off... Unless they're giving free 14 updates to those people, that was a bit sharp...
 
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These are some good new features! I really like the storage optimization they seem to have focused on. If I was a Parallels user I would be jumping on this upgrade right away.
 
theluggage said:
The Parallels upgrades aren't bad if you buy it mainly to run Windows or LTS versions of Linux - unless you insist on installing the newest MacOS or Ubuntu as soon as it drops its usually 2-3 years between forced upgrades (each version usually lasts for about 2 OSX versions).
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Why should you not upgrade your machine to the latest software simply because this parasitic company won't let you upgrade with extorting you? Like I said before, I don't pay so that Office will work under upgraded OS, nor most other software. Of software I paid for, only Dragon Dictate and Parallels operate this model and guess what - I'm no longer using either of them as a result.
 
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MikhailT said:
There was a lot of confusion because VMware fired the front-end UI team responsible for Fusion but the core Fusion team is still there. VMWare failed to explain this properly and so, a lot of people doesn't want to use their products of the fear that they'd be discontinued. This was one of the reasons I couldn't switch to Fusion a while ago when I was upset with Parallels.

Fusion is not discontinued at all and they seem to be working harder than Paralllels like they're the first to use Metal APIs.

Unfortunately, while Metal is great, it doesn't have enough support to fully get rid of OpenGL code in any VM products including Parallels. Apple needs to get off its butt and update Hypervisor and Metal to add more low level features.
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Thanks for explaining. Very bad marketing indeed.
 
MikhailT said:
Have you tried it and if yes, what are your thoughts on it? I tried it when it first came out and it was unstable for me.
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Unfortunately I don't have a test system to try it on nor do I have the time during the day to do so. I haven't been keeping track of it consistently; Fusion 10 simply works as expected so I don't see a need to play with it.
 
Started on Parallels and then switched when Fusion came out and haven't looked back. Just so much more compatible with those that work in the VM world, not just on Mac.
 
These Parallels guys must be lying, every year they find a new way to make the app "faster and save more memory". How ?
Also the one time fee licenses is a lie, by next year their app will probably drop support and start malfunctioning on newer updated MacOS. If I purchase an app I expect it to work as is for at least 3 years.

This was easy back in the 90s when big OS releases were happening like every 3-4 years, now there are like monthly updates other than the year upgrades.

OldSchoolMacGuy said:
Started on Parallels and then switched when Fusion came out and haven't looked back. Just so much more compatible with those that work in the VM world, not just on Mac.
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you mean VM works better with other OSes than windows?
 
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Markoth said:
VMWare Fusion is better in my opinion.
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That hasn't been my experience. I tried Fusion several years ago because of its superior licensing scheme (one license supports three physical installations). When I tried using a container stored on an external drive, I had multiple kernel panics. It worked well enough on an image stored on an internal drive, but it did not allow me to switch spaces on individual monitors. I often need to have my host OS on one display and the guest OS on another, switching back on forth independently. This may be fixed now, but Fusion 7 did not support this - when I'd switch spaces on one monitor, the other monitor would also switch and I could not have a mix of guest and host OSes displayed. Parallels has supported this as far back as I can remember and is a critical enough feature that I ended up moving back to Parallels after a few months.
 
Where can I get that blue Windows icon I always see on Parallels screen shots? I've looked everywhere, can't find it.
 
MacBH928 said:
you mean VM works better with other OSes than windows?
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VMware is the largest player in the virtualization market. That means not only better support for their products but also there's compatibility across using a VM within Fusion and other VMware platforms like Windows.
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n-evo said:
Where can I get that blue Windows icon I always see on Parallels screen shots? I've looked everywhere, can't find it.
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It's the Windows 8-10 icon. A simple Google search will show countless examples.
 
MrGimper said:
They don't make people buy the new one. There are plenty of discussions on here where a version will work on a newer version of the OS instead of HAVING to upgrade Parallels. Also, nothing wrong with bringing out a new version of software every year.... Apple do it. The problem is that their licensing model is archaic. Before 13 you could "get away with" having the same key on a desktop and a laptop, but since 13 you couldn't.
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Why? Who else apart from Apple gives everyone a major software revision update for free? If you subscribe, you do get it for free.

It's not without its faults, but lets not make stuff up.
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If you subscribe, it is not free.
 
The Mercurian said:
Why should you not upgrade your machine to the latest software simply because this parasitic company won't let you upgrade with extorting you?
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Why should you get something for nothing? Check your sense of entitlement. Its not expensive software and, because it access the machine at a low level, its more prone to breaking with OS updates than something like Word. Someone has to do actual work to keep it up to date with MacOS and the latest versions of Windows, Linux etc. that it runs.

If you want something free, there's Oracle VirtualBox - which lacks the polish, graphical performance and Windows/MacOS integration, but is otherwise pretty solid - but if you're worried about parasites just be grateful that you're far too small for Oracle to bother to eat you.
 
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