VMWare Public Beta, Parallels Beta 2

[user13]

As for me i prefer using Parallels - with its Coherence mode (awesome it is!!!) and with Boot Camp support it is more preferable for me. Maybe new beta still lacks some features, such as 3d support for example, but i hope Parallels will do something to improve the situation

 

[MRU]

It is now time for Parallels to die

With the quality of the VMware beta, why would you say that.

Parallels offers a great product and is constantly updated / supported and bettered at every stage. Somthing a lot of bigger software companies could learn from.

Did parallels upset you in a parallel life ?

 

[geerlingguy]

I'm very excited about this "Drap/Drop support"

Me too. What exactly does this mean for us users? Does it integrate with some new PowerBook G5 feature that we'll hear about along with the iPhone at MacWorld?

 

[user13]

With the quality of the VMware beta, why would you say that.

Parallels offers a great product and is constantly updated / supported and bettered at every stage. Somthing a lot of bigger software companies could learn from.

Did parallels upset you in a parallel life ?

I agree. Parallels do upgrade their product, they work over the drawbacks! Now they made usb 2.0 available at last and boot camp support.
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2006/12/01.12.shtml
http://www.macnn.com/articles/06/08/08/parallels.desktop.for.mac

http://flickr.com/photos/gruber/311690002/

Don't want to be unfounded - interesting articles

 

[reflex]

So far this beta of VMWare is working very well here. The first beta was bad, but this one works about as well as the Windows version for me (so far).

 

[bigandy]

This means they'll have to focus into two different areas when I think they should focus mainly on VMs for Vista

you do realise VMWare makes other non Windows based platforms, like Linux?

they're not entirely focused on Windows as it is. i don't think they ever have been...

 

[decksnap]

Can somebody lay out the basics for a 'windows on Mac' newbie's mom?

My parents will be buying an iMac imminently, and they will need to run likely one single Windows geneology program. With all the 'stuff still in beta' and various options, what's the best and simplest way to set her up?

 

[Clive At Five]

...which brings a number of improvements including USB 2.0 support, Boot Camp partition support, and Drap/Drop support.

Woohoo! Finally! I've been begging them to add "Drap and Drop" support for ages! I'm all aboard now... pre-ordering on Amazon... now.



-Clive

 

[user13]

Woohoo! Finally! I've been begging them to add "Drap and Drop" support for ages! I'm all aboard now... pre-ordering on Amazon... now.



-Clive

Drag and drop is awesome!!

I agree.

 

[spookje]

Damn, this beta for Parallels really sucks. The bootcamp feature really sucks, totally ****ed up my bootcamp partition. Piece of crap.

 

[akac]

Parallels are going to have to work hard to maintain their market.

Whilst a casual VM user will have a choice between Parallels & VMWare, anyone in the corporate space will find the cross-platform use of VMWare very compelling. I've used VMWare for years on Windows and have lots of different corporate VM images. Moving to the Mac meant using only Parallels so I had to re-create the VMs. But now there's a choice.

Just look at the array of virtual appliances. Wow! I've not seen these before and really appreciate the idea that I could load up a whole range of pre-configured VMs - especially the Linuxes.

I've enjoyed using Parallels and feel a degree of sympathy with them in a kind of David and Goliath way. But struth, the big boy's coming back into the playground and is really going to really fight for the market which VMWare see as theirs.

Depends on how much VMWare costs. Traditionally its about $200 or so. And right now Parallels 3092 is far more advanced than VMWare in a lot of areas, though it is quite buggy.

 

[BeyondCloister]

Damn, this beta for Parallels really sucks. The bootcamp feature really sucks, totally ****ed up my bootcamp partition. Piece of crap.

Did you follow their instructions regarding any previous installations?

If you take a look over at the Parallels forum you should be able to get help about it as numerous people have got it working.

 

[manu chao]

I wonder, will there come a day soon when I don't need to keep my PC around and up to date for gaming?

If you need to connect to the internet at least occasionally (to install updates to games or drivers, the OS to keep your gaming platform 'competive') then you will have to keep updating even your virtual PC with all security patches. If you think you can do without the internet (and download the occasional piece of software on the Mac and then copy it from there to your virtual PC) then you do not have to keep updating.

 

[ChrisA]

Parallels are going to have to work hard to maintain their market.

Whilst a casual VM user will have a choice between Parallels & VMWare, anyone in the corporate space will find the cross-platform use of VMWare very compelling.

Even home users might have more then one computer. If they do they might like "VMware Server" then they can run a VM image on a physical machine that is not the one they are sitting in front of. Basically outsourcing the CPU. Also if they have both Windows PC and a Mac, With VMware they can share the VMs across both computers. It will take quite some some before end users become educated and comfortable with the idea that a VM does not have to be tied to specific hardware or host OS. Some will figure this out, ord will spread.

Now that VMware is available I'm thinking I want a Mac Pro rather then a 24" iMac

If you want to see something very interresting the folks involved with QEMU are looking to run Mac OS X inside a VM. I already run VMware on this Linux system, would be great to open a Mac OS VM. QEMU is Open Source so it can do anything we want it to.

 

[ChrisA]

Depends on how much VMWare costs. Traditionally its about $200 or so. And right now Parallels 3092 is far more advanced than VMWare in a lot of areas, though it is quite buggy.

VMware is sold at a range of price points. VM "Player" is free. Also VM Server is free. "Workstation" about $200 and the others are much more expensive going up to four digits.

The free Server package is comparable to the Mac Fusion beta except server has some extra features for running VM on remote machines.

My guess? VMware will match Parallel's price

 

[ChrisA]

As a registered user for both Parallels for Mac and VMWare for Windows,
I think VMware is risking something more important as Vista comes out in the beginning of next year in similar speed as Leopard.
This means they'll have to focus into two different areas when I think they should focus mainly on VMs for Vista

I think VMware is thinking about more. Like Linux and Solaris and VMware makes most of their money in the big data enters and server rooms. They are giving away their "VM Server" and "payer" products for FREE. That's basically just to hook new users and gain market share for their expensive enterprise products

There are plenty of Open Source and Free VM-like products and now both Linux and Solaris have VM-like features (xen and zones) built-in so there is not much money to be made at the low end. So VMware must have decided to give up on asking for money. With VM features moving into the OS they have to look to providing a way to manage the use of VMs and make it easy for admins and of course they sell support and consulting

 

[ChickenSwartz]

ever heard of codeweavers crossover?
i have nothing but excellent experience with gaming win soft on osx. uses all my macs resources and dont need win to run pc progs.

CrossOver is a great idea, but at this point it is really hit or miss if a given program will work correctly. They haven't been making huge strides toward fixing many of these problems so it seems to me (I am not a programmer) that they are hitting some brick walls. Maybe they are saving it all for the final retail version.

 

[Snowy_River]

Does anyone have any screenshots of Coherence? This sounds very interesting, but I'd like to see how it looks, and the Parallels website doesn't offer any.

One big question I'd have about it is whether or not you can open and save files from the Mac disk. For example, if you receive a Word file in your email, and you want to open it in Office, which you have running under Parallels, do you have to transfer it to the PC disk first, or what?

Personally, I'm looking for transparency all the way. That's why, right now, I only have Crossover installed. (However, I'll freely admit that I almost never use any Windows apps., so this isn't a huge issue to me.)

 

[adiosk8]

This new paralells build messed up my bootcamp...I went back into bootcamp and my keyboard / mouse doesnt work and it sits there and tries to search for drivers...

 

[Scottyk9]

Does anyone have any screenshots of Coherence? This sounds very interesting, but I'd like to see how it looks, and the Parallels website doesn't offer any.

One big question I'd have about it is whether or not you can open and save files from the Mac disk. For example, if you receive a Word file in your email, and you want to open it in Office, which you have running under Parallels, do you have to transfer it to the PC disk first, or what?

Personally, I'm looking for transparency all the way. That's why, right now, I only have Crossover installed. (However, I'll freely admit that I almost never use any Windows apps., so this isn't a huge issue to me.)

several ways to do this
- shared folder (pretty fast in the latest betas)
- clipboard
- the recent beta's have drag and drop, you can just move files between the virtual machine and OS X

 

[Kelmon]

I currently have my investment in Parallels but I'm not touching the current Beta until it becomes a full release. As much as I sometimes enjoy running beta software so that I can "see the future", this isn't the type of application that I'd be comfortable running in such a state, particularly given the number of reports of problems.

Despite having received an invitation to test the beta of VMware Fusion, for the moment I think I'll pass until it becomes a more mature product.

 

[Snowy_River]

several ways to do this
- shared folder (pretty fast in the latest betas)
- clipboard
- the recent beta's have drag and drop, you can just move files between the virtual machine and OS X

For the sake of transparency, I think that I'd have to go with the shared folder. If you're copying back and forth, whether with the clipboard or through drag-and-drop, you're creating multiple instances of the same file, taking up twice the disk space, etc.

 

[digitalbiker]

RedHat Linux on Mac OS X

I know this is slightly off-topic but I was wondering if anyone on this board has had experience running RedHat Linux in either VMWare or Parallels on a MacPro with OS X.

I have a key scientific application that I need to run in Red Hat Enterprise WS 4. It utilizes some 3D OpenGL code for 3D data display and rotations.

I have a long love affair with macs and I would love to finally abandon this Dell Linux machine for a new mac pro.

I am chomping at the bit for some information on just how well Red Hat Linux will run in VMWare or Parallels on OS X, so that I can take the plunge and buy a new MacPro.

What are the drawbacks? Are Red Hat Drivers for MacPro hardware a major issue?

 

[eyup]

Parallels ACTIVATION

Anybody got any ideas why I'm getting "The activation key cannot be used with the current version of parallels Desktop!" when I enter my legit key from the previous version?

 

[72930]

Anybody got any ideas why I'm getting "The activation key cannot be used with the current version of parallels Desktop!" when I enter my legit key from the previous version?

Try something illegal, you paid for the software...