Parallels....is it really worth it?

[charlestrippy]

So i've been running boot camp for sometime, since it was released (it's amazing for gaming and such - which is all I really use it, minus a couple .exe's I need to run)

Anyway, should I wait for maybe an Apple version of Parallels (is that even possible - would the final version of Boot Camp work that way?) Or should I format my XP partition smaller than 10gb (maybe to 5gb) for just a game or two and purchase Parallel's to make an .img on my osx drive and use that to run my .exe's? Is Parallel's really that fast and efficient? Can you make an .img for parallel's that's only like 1gb (since the .exe's I need to run are quite tiny)?

Heh, hopefully everyone is able to follow my "jumbled mess"....

thanks!

 

[plinden]

It depends on what you need. CPU-speed is excellent, maybe 80-90% of a single core P-M at the same clockspeed - e.g. a VM my 17" iMac is approximately the same as a 1.6 GHz Pentium-M. Productivity apps like MS Office work fine. I've been able to run CivII in an XP VM (but now that I'm out of the 30 day activation periods, I'll not be doing that any more)

But it's not perfect. There is absolutely no 3D graphics acceleration. There are problems with some USB devices like GPS devices, and Windows Mobile 5 devices apparently aren't recognized when attached via USB. With RC1 there were occasional problems with runaway smbd processes when trying to use the shared folders. Parallels tools is available only for windows.

For me, it's the perfect development environment - with no need for 3D acceleration, and code compilation times being CPU bound, I can do most of my work in OS X and switch to Linux for the final builds and unit testing. And there are people here at work running Visual Studio in a VM on their MBPros.

 

[charlestrippy]

It depends on what you need. CPU-speed is excellent, maybe 80-90% of a single core P-M at the same clockspeed - e.g. a VM my 17" iMac is approximately the same as a 1.6 GHz Pentium-M. Productivity apps like MS Office work fine. I've been able to run CivII in an XP VM (but now that I'm out of the 30 day activation periods, I'll not be doing that any more)

But it's not perfect. There is absolutely no 3D graphics acceleration. There are problems with some USB devices like GPS devices, and Windows Mobile 5 devices apparently aren't recognized when attached via USB. With RC1 there were occasional problems with runaway smbd processes when trying to use the shared folders. Parallels tools is available only for windows.

For me, it's the perfect development environment - with no need for 3D acceleration, and code compilation times being CPU bound, I can do most of my work in OS X and switch to Linux for the final builds and unit testing. And there are people here at work running Visual Studio in a VM on their MBPros.

So for running a couple simple .exe programs it should be all right? (The programs are written in VB - so it's simple stuff - nothing too complexed)? Than maybe keep boot camp for running half life 2 and such....?

 

[plinden]

So for running a couple simple .exe programs it should be all right? (The programs are written in VB - so it's simple stuff - nothing too complexed)? Than maybe keep boot camp for running half life 2 and such....?

That would be ok, but remember you'll need a couple of GB for Windows since it's a totally different install to the one under Boot Camp. The disk image is sparse, i.e. it starts out small and is increased in size as needed up to the maximum you specify. You also need enough free space, about 25%, or Windows will start to slow down. But apparently, the disk image tools allow you to resize the hard disk, and you can create and add more virtual hard disks anyway.

 

[charlestrippy]

That would be ok, but remember you'll need a couple of GB for Windows since it's a totally different install to the one under Boot Camp. The disk image is sparse, i.e. it starts out small and is increased in size as needed up to the maximum you specify. You also need enough free space, about 25%, or Windows will start to slow down. But apparently, the disk image tools allow you to resize the hard disk, and you can create and add more virtual hard disks anyway.

killer dude, thanks for all the help!!


EDIT: So you said there is little video support? So installing that cd people make using bootcamp with all the drivers wont work for it, correct? So if there isn't video support - when you move windows around - are they all jerky and stuff - vs. smooth?

 

[Nar1117]

The normal things that you would do in windows, like as you mentioned, moving windows around, will seem just as fast as on a comparable windows PC, but the things that wont work are the things that require 3d graphics accelleration, which as Plinden said, parallels lacks. If youre using parallels for VB stuff, it will run maybe 5-10% slower than on a comparable PC.

In other words, for a pc, parallels is quite fast. Ive only used it a few times, but i experienced virtually no slo-down when doing normal things like web browsing or opening programs.

 

[charlestrippy]

The normal things that you would do in windows, like as you mentioned, moving windows around, will seem just as fast as on a comparable windows PC, but the things that wont work are the things that require 3d graphics accelleration, which as Plinden said, parallels lacks. If youre using parallels for VB stuff, it will run maybe 5-10% slower than on a comparable PC.

In other words, for a pc, parallels is quite fast. Ive only used it a few times, but i experienced virtually no slo-down when doing normal things like web browsing or opening programs.

killer, thanks nar

 

[YS2003]

Do you need to set up a separate partition for Windows XP under Parallels?

When you use Paralles to run Windows XP, do you set up a separate partition for Windows? Or, is it better to just install Parallels and Windows just another applications in the application folder in the main Mac partition?

 

[MisterMe]

When you use Paralles to run Windows XP, do you set up a separate partition for Windows? Or, is it better to just install Parallels and Windows just another applications in the application folder in the main Mac partition?

Parallels Workstation operates as a virtual computer(s), not physical one(s). You may run as many Intel-based virtual computers as you have available hard drive capacity. Like Virtual PC, Parallels Workstation uses disk image files as virtual hard drives. Unlike VPC, PW advertises support of every version of Windows going back to Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS back to MS-DOS 6.2.2. It also supports numerous OSes as primary and guests. Long story short, you don't partition your Mac's hard drive to accomodate the virtualization software. The software creates image files with the requisite format for each OS. Look here for more information.

 

[bradc]

How is MSN Messenger haha? That, solitaire and Autocad will be my primary uses.

 

[mduser63]

How is MSN Messenger haha? That, solitaire and Autocad will be my primary uses.

Why not use MSN Messenger (or Fire or Adium or Proteus) for the Mac rather than MSN Messenger for Windows? Also, there are plenty of really good solitaire games for the Mac. Autocad should be fine in Parallels unless it requires 3D support. I wouldn't know as I've never used Autocad.

 

[Lukeinnj]

One of the best things I've found with parallels is that I can finally play windows media with the windows DRM (i.e. Yahoo Music, Sirius [without having to stop and restart the stream like with the F4M Beta])...mind you its all I use it for...with the exception of TiVo2Go. Well worth the $50.

 

[semaja2]

I actually use 3D Studio Max under Parallels it runs quite well, probally nothing compared to what it could do if it was running native but it ran about the same as my old machine that i used, once i get more ram i think it will run much better