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VMWare Public Beta, Parallels Beta 2
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VMWare seems fine
I installed VMWare and ran it against one of my old Windos 98 VMs (they're small so easily copied). It seems fine.
There's a warning that VMWare's compiled in a debug mode which is much slower (this might explain what a previous contributor's experienced).
Installing VMWare tools is fine. Needed to do a manual install of the VGA driver (it popped up a text file which contained decent information).
Had to register Windos98!!! to be able to download an Intel 82371AP/EB PCI to USB Universal Bus Controller (which then required me to find a Windos98 disc... yuck, sod it, I can't be arsed to root through all my CDs and I don't need USB on it....).
Main thing is it's working and connected to the Interweb. Don't think I'll bother to install the 31 updates though!
Nice. This really does solve an issue, a barrier even, between me using the Mac and them that don't know any better using the rubbish from Redmond. I'll now be able to use their VMs without going through the hassle of installing Widows.
Actually, this is a damn good point about VMs; it's one hell of a lot easier to back up a VM than to re-install a machine.
Attached a screenshot for a laugh.
I don't like the huge icons VMWare have used in the toolbar. I much prefer it to be down a side... Still, it's a beta and I'm sure it'll change.
.Glenn
I installed VMWare and ran it against one of my old Windos 98 VMs (they're small so easily copied). It seems fine.
There's a warning that VMWare's compiled in a debug mode which is much slower (this might explain what a previous contributor's experienced).
Installing VMWare tools is fine. Needed to do a manual install of the VGA driver (it popped up a text file which contained decent information).
Had to register Windos98!!! to be able to download an Intel 82371AP/EB PCI to USB Universal Bus Controller (which then required me to find a Windos98 disc... yuck, sod it, I can't be arsed to root through all my CDs and I don't need USB on it....).
Main thing is it's working and connected to the Interweb. Don't think I'll bother to install the 31 updates though!
Nice. This really does solve an issue, a barrier even, between me using the Mac and them that don't know any better using the rubbish from Redmond. I'll now be able to use their VMs without going through the hassle of installing Widows.
Actually, this is a damn good point about VMs; it's one hell of a lot easier to back up a VM than to re-install a machine.
Attached a screenshot for a laugh.
I don't like the huge icons VMWare have used in the toolbar. I much prefer it to be down a side... Still, it's a beta and I'm sure it'll change.
.Glenn
Attachments
Not digging at 0x15, but I do wish the gamers would save themselves a ton of money and go and buy proper hardware and leave the rest of us alone. All most of us need is the thing to work with videos/dvds and with a decent screen resolution & colour depth.
It's just a bette noir of mine about gamers being the latest way that lappie manufacturers are flogging their wares - and ignoring professionals who need decent screen resolutions.... bah humbug.
Arbitrary resize - it's the mutts nuts...
Parallels' arbitrary screen resize really is the mutts nuts. It's only a small thing, but it means you can run windows in 'maximised' mode, but not in the full screen mode. Or any other size for that matter.
Neat.
Yep, Parallels still has a large edge on VMWare (which to be fair is still only a beta).
Thinking about it, I think that Mac people are more fussy about user interfaces than Windows people. It's little tricks like arbitrary resize and general look and feel that could give Parallels the edge.
.Glenn
Parallels' arbitrary screen resize really is the mutts nuts. It's only a small thing, but it means you can run windows in 'maximised' mode, but not in the full screen mode. Or any other size for that matter.
Neat.
Yep, Parallels still has a large edge on VMWare (which to be fair is still only a beta).
Thinking about it, I think that Mac people are more fussy about user interfaces than Windows people. It's little tricks like arbitrary resize and general look and feel that could give Parallels the edge.
.Glenn
90% of the public doesn't care about 64-bit. PAE Probably applies to even less people. 2-Way SMP may be interesting. Right now though Parallels is ahead pure and simple.
REALLY not a fair comparison. Parallels "beta" is an extension of their existing software which has had many of the bugs worked out of it. VMWare's Fusion is literally a 1.0 release with, I'm assuming, a TON of debug code running throughout it.
Installed VMWare last night on my Mac Pro and then created a VM of WinXPSP2. Dedicated 512MB to it and it's running pretty fast and with the VM Tools I can just drag the mouse right out and in without any key commands.
I have used earlier versions of Parallels, although no on MP and it seemed very slow. The fact that VMWare is running in debug mode and fast(at least on a MP) is impressive.
I do like the coherence feature in Parallels, so I will give that new beta a try later on. One thing I would like to see is Firewire support added for these two products.
I have used earlier versions of Parallels, although no on MP and it seemed very slow. The fact that VMWare is running in debug mode and fast(at least on a MP) is impressive.
I do like the coherence feature in Parallels, so I will give that new beta a try later on. One thing I would like to see is Firewire support added for these two products.
Does the latest beta of PARALLELS run XP on 2 cores ?
EDIT : ...nevermind me, found my own answer myself...
=P
EDIT : ...nevermind me, found my own answer myself...
=P
It was on a MacBook, I'm afraid. Haven't had any issues with it recognising the keyboard. Have you posted on the VMware forum? It seems that there are some devs loitering around on there.
Be interesting to know what caused it, as a MacPro is going to be next purchase, and Fusion is one of the things that I will be running on it.
Yep I have a lot of problems with it as well. The previous versions I tried, when I activated "full screen" with Parallels on my 2nd Mac monitor, it would simply adjust to that screen and go full screen. What it does now is, it seems to resize to that monitors resolution, and then place itself on the FIRST monitor instead, resultning in not full screen, but... 3/4 of the screen, the rest being black.
Also, the Coherence feature, while cool, needs some work. I had some strange crashes and I could hardly get back to OS X again and such.
VMWare Fusion not starting
I have the same experience that you have. Another person reported the same problem as we have. He is using a Intel MacBook Pro with several external drives connected to it. All he did was disconnect his drives & he says that it then worked. I have an Intel Mac Pro. I tried mine with all external items disconnected other than keyboard & trackball. I still came out just like you did.
I've reported it as a problem. Because of the closeness of Christmas, I have not yet received an answer.
Bill the TaxMan
I have the same experience that you have. Another person reported the same problem as we have. He is using a Intel MacBook Pro with several external drives connected to it. All he did was disconnect his drives & he says that it then worked. I have an Intel Mac Pro. I tried mine with all external items disconnected other than keyboard & trackball. I still came out just like you did.
I've reported it as a problem. Because of the closeness of Christmas, I have not yet received an answer.
Bill the TaxMan
Actually there is a screenshot of Coherence on their official site - it is in the official blog. Here it is: coherence picture
Why VMware will win
VMware will win in the long run. All the little features that Parallels keeps adding, are ALL on the VMware roadmap, VMware is just a bigger company that has high standards for quality control. I've been lucky enough to visit VMware and see their betas (the ones not released) and the user interfaces, and feature set make Parallels look bad.
Did you know that Parallels isn't even a true Cocoa application? it's a qt app, that has JAVA for it's interface! Fusion on the other hand was built from scratch, from the ground up with x-code, and is a full-blown cocoa application. Most of the team at VMware are ex-apple employees, as well as their user interface designers. While Parallels make look sexy, and have more functionality now it won't be able to hide its true colors for long.
Take the latest Parallels beta, with "usb 2.0" support. It's absolutely crap, you can finally see they are building on a "house of cards". I do admire the Parallels team, they were the first out, and did us all a HUGE favor. But when I plug in USB 2.0 stuff, and my machine HANGS (java libs loading), and kernel panics because of my two USB hubs it starts to get really annoying. Or try installing the Parallel Tools while having a DVD in the drive... You're in for a REAL treat!
Not to mention the way Parallels shares it's resources with Mac OS X. For example, I have a Motorola Q phone, which recently had a fantastic software update, that of course was Windows only. Being that Mac OS X, DOES SEE the Motorola Q, and So does Parallels I fired up the .exe with the hope of Updating my phone firmware through Parallels... Obviously it didn't work, it can't properly share if Mac OS X, "grabs a hold" of the device so to speak.
So I did the exact same thing in Fusion (which is an early beta), and my computer didn't freeze while it loaded the VM, didn't KERNEL panic, and Installed the FIRMWARE UPDATE TO MY PHONE!!!!!!! This is absolutely INCREDIBLE USB support. It's very complex to do a firmware update to your phone (easy to fry it period), let alone work properly through a VM, when Mac OS X is also trying to access the phone at the same time. This to me was impressive! VMware's products (windows & linux) have always had amazing device support, and with the release of the next version of workstation (very soon) ;-) There will be graphic acceleration!
While I do love the features of Parallels, for now I've stopped using it, it's not stable, and craps out anytime I forget to unplug all my USB devices....
It just shows at the heart of Parallels the app IS built on a deck of cards. VMware on the other hand is a object-c Cocoa with rock-solid base, that features can be built upon, and will also be able to use whatever new features, looks, style, resolution independence, and other features offered by Leopard when it ships.
Not to mention the 9,000 + pre-build virtual appliances you can download from VMwares site or use with ANY platform.
Just my two cents...
VMware will win in the long run. All the little features that Parallels keeps adding, are ALL on the VMware roadmap, VMware is just a bigger company that has high standards for quality control. I've been lucky enough to visit VMware and see their betas (the ones not released) and the user interfaces, and feature set make Parallels look bad.
Did you know that Parallels isn't even a true Cocoa application? it's a qt app, that has JAVA for it's interface! Fusion on the other hand was built from scratch, from the ground up with x-code, and is a full-blown cocoa application. Most of the team at VMware are ex-apple employees, as well as their user interface designers. While Parallels make look sexy, and have more functionality now it won't be able to hide its true colors for long.
Take the latest Parallels beta, with "usb 2.0" support. It's absolutely crap, you can finally see they are building on a "house of cards". I do admire the Parallels team, they were the first out, and did us all a HUGE favor. But when I plug in USB 2.0 stuff, and my machine HANGS (java libs loading), and kernel panics because of my two USB hubs it starts to get really annoying. Or try installing the Parallel Tools while having a DVD in the drive... You're in for a REAL treat!
Not to mention the way Parallels shares it's resources with Mac OS X. For example, I have a Motorola Q phone, which recently had a fantastic software update, that of course was Windows only. Being that Mac OS X, DOES SEE the Motorola Q, and So does Parallels I fired up the .exe with the hope of Updating my phone firmware through Parallels... Obviously it didn't work, it can't properly share if Mac OS X, "grabs a hold" of the device so to speak.
So I did the exact same thing in Fusion (which is an early beta), and my computer didn't freeze while it loaded the VM, didn't KERNEL panic, and Installed the FIRMWARE UPDATE TO MY PHONE!!!!!!! This is absolutely INCREDIBLE USB support. It's very complex to do a firmware update to your phone (easy to fry it period), let alone work properly through a VM, when Mac OS X is also trying to access the phone at the same time. This to me was impressive! VMware's products (windows & linux) have always had amazing device support, and with the release of the next version of workstation (very soon) ;-) There will be graphic acceleration!
While I do love the features of Parallels, for now I've stopped using it, it's not stable, and craps out anytime I forget to unplug all my USB devices....
It just shows at the heart of Parallels the app IS built on a deck of cards. VMware on the other hand is a object-c Cocoa with rock-solid base, that features can be built upon, and will also be able to use whatever new features, looks, style, resolution independence, and other features offered by Leopard when it ships.
Not to mention the 9,000 + pre-build virtual appliances you can download from VMwares site or use with ANY platform.
Just my two cents...
5 pages, and only 4 'drap/drop' jokes?!?
Wow. I'm amazed. We're on 5 pages of comments, and mine will be only the 5th one making fun of the "drap/drop" typo. Did few people actually notice this typo, or is everyone just ignoring it?
To inkhead: You're ragging on Parallels because they only just added a feature (USB 2.0) that VMWare has in their beta. Even so, Parallels came out with it a day before VMWare, and has had SOMETHING available for months now. That's like comparing the Vista beta to the Leopard beta, and complaining that the Vista beta sucks because it introduced automatic backing up in a later beta, right before the first Leopard beta with it came out. They're both BETA! Deal with it. They add features.
As for it not being a true Cocoa app? So what! Cocoa isn't the only 'official' API for OS X. Compiled Java is just as good as Cocoa for almost everything. NeoOffice, the semi-official OpenOffice.org Aqua-native port, uses Java for it's interface as well. Are you saying that it is crap as well?
Parallels isn't perfect. But the first release is good enough that I bought it. And release 2 looks from the BETAS (again, they're beta, expect problems,) to be even better. If you don't like the stability of the betas, then go back to the latest release version. If you absolutely, positively MUST have the features in the beta, then you put up with the idiosyncrasies of the beta. That's the way betas go. I've used betas and developer previews for a whole bunch of operating systems, dating back to System 7, and the betas are almost always buggy. That's why they're beta, not final!
As for hardware support in Parallels, as of the previous beta build (3036, was it?) and the current beta, I have had no problems getting any of my USB devices to work properly. Not even the Microsoft Sidewinder joystick that stubbornly refused to work at all in the latest release build. (Gotta play my Flight Simulator, after all.) I find that some devices only work properly if I turn on 'Connect USB devices automatically', so that OS X never really has a chance to 'grab ahold' of it.
Wow. I'm amazed. We're on 5 pages of comments, and mine will be only the 5th one making fun of the "drap/drop" typo. Did few people actually notice this typo, or is everyone just ignoring it?
To inkhead: You're ragging on Parallels because they only just added a feature (USB 2.0) that VMWare has in their beta. Even so, Parallels came out with it a day before VMWare, and has had SOMETHING available for months now. That's like comparing the Vista beta to the Leopard beta, and complaining that the Vista beta sucks because it introduced automatic backing up in a later beta, right before the first Leopard beta with it came out. They're both BETA! Deal with it. They add features.
As for it not being a true Cocoa app? So what! Cocoa isn't the only 'official' API for OS X. Compiled Java is just as good as Cocoa for almost everything. NeoOffice, the semi-official OpenOffice.org Aqua-native port, uses Java for it's interface as well. Are you saying that it is crap as well?
Parallels isn't perfect. But the first release is good enough that I bought it. And release 2 looks from the BETAS (again, they're beta, expect problems,) to be even better. If you don't like the stability of the betas, then go back to the latest release version. If you absolutely, positively MUST have the features in the beta, then you put up with the idiosyncrasies of the beta. That's the way betas go. I've used betas and developer previews for a whole bunch of operating systems, dating back to System 7, and the betas are almost always buggy. That's why they're beta, not final!
As for hardware support in Parallels, as of the previous beta build (3036, was it?) and the current beta, I have had no problems getting any of my USB devices to work properly. Not even the Microsoft Sidewinder joystick that stubbornly refused to work at all in the latest release build. (Gotta play my Flight Simulator, after all.) I find that some devices only work properly if I turn on 'Connect USB devices automatically', so that OS X never really has a chance to 'grab ahold' of it.
I'd suggest there's something wrong. My Parallels beta works perfectly on my MBP with two monitors.
I use the attached monitor as the primary monitor with Parallels running on that one. It's fine. Go into full screen mode and it 'cubes' both monitors, and leaves the Windows running full screen in the attached monitor and iTunes/etc running in the foreground of the MBP monitor.
Coherence mode is fine as well as the arbitary size adjust.
It also doesn't slow down. If anything it appears faster running the beta than the old 1970 build.
.Glenn
The only thing that could be "wrong" is this new beta of Parallels. But why shouldn't there be - it's a beta. I am sure they get things sorted out.
I had this problem and quit using the Parallels beta until the newest beta. You only have to activate Windows once in Parallels and you are good to go.
That day was months ago. The instant my MacPro arrived at my doorstep, I yanked the 7950 out of my Gaming PC, shoehorned it into the MacPro, got a fourth HD for Windows, and I haven't needed a PC since. Now the old PC finds itself underclocked and sitting in the living room relegated to media center duty.
And another thing that pisses me off. The parallels beta only works with Boot Camp partitions on your PRIMARY DRIVE! That is horse manure, I may as well have wiped my hind parts with the $80.00 and burned it. Even after I called those know nothings at Parallels to ask them if it would work with its own drive.
Vmvare Fusion
I Used 2 Months Parallels And Got Those New From Macrumors About Beta For Fusion, I Downloaded And It's The Best Thing For My Work On Mac, I Use Autodesk Software Revit Which Didn't Work In Parallels Very Well, Temporary Dimensions Were Not Possoble To Read(to Small) And Mouse Functioning Was Very Bad, Some Other Things, In Fusion Wow No Difference To Pc, Works Great, Now I Can Do Everything On Mac.
By The Way, I Wrote To Parallels Support And They Ignore Clients, It's Been Few Weeks And No Response At All About Above Listed Issues So I Am Great That Fusion Came To The Market.
Good Job Vmware !!!!! Thank You
I Used 2 Months Parallels And Got Those New From Macrumors About Beta For Fusion, I Downloaded And It's The Best Thing For My Work On Mac, I Use Autodesk Software Revit Which Didn't Work In Parallels Very Well, Temporary Dimensions Were Not Possoble To Read(to Small) And Mouse Functioning Was Very Bad, Some Other Things, In Fusion Wow No Difference To Pc, Works Great, Now I Can Do Everything On Mac.
By The Way, I Wrote To Parallels Support And They Ignore Clients, It's Been Few Weeks And No Response At All About Above Listed Issues So I Am Great That Fusion Came To The Market.
Good Job Vmware !!!!! Thank You
Well, all I know is that I am able to achieve about 100 frames-per-second encoding with parallels, using MeGUI and x264 encoder.
This is sometimes better than native Mac OS X encodings. What more can I ask for? and it does NOT suffocate my computer at all. But then again - I do have 2GB of RAM.
Parallels is great, and if the Boot camp feature will finally work it will be even better. drap and drop is a breeze as well. Windows Express install is just plain fun - you enter the serial number for windows and let the installation run in the background. I don't even need to look at it.
By the way, it took Windows 3 days to became infested with viruses and Trojan horses. God, I'm glad I switched to the Mac...
Oded S.
This is sometimes better than native Mac OS X encodings. What more can I ask for? and it does NOT suffocate my computer at all. But then again - I do have 2GB of RAM.
Parallels is great, and if the Boot camp feature will finally work it will be even better. drap and drop is a breeze as well. Windows Express install is just plain fun - you enter the serial number for windows and let the installation run in the background. I don't even need to look at it.
By the way, it took Windows 3 days to became infested with viruses and Trojan horses. God, I'm glad I switched to the Mac...
Oded S.
I would like apple themselves to develop transparency with WINE, they did pretty well with Rosetta, and imagine ALL WINDOWS GAMES - no more reasons not to switch. Codeweavers are OK, but have a load of incompatability issues.