Parallels Desktop

Archives Forums/MacOS X Discussion/Parallels Desktop

ImaginaryHuman(Posted 2008) [#1]
Anyone here using the Parallels Desktop software, and if so, do you like it? Are there any limitations? Do you run Vista or Linux in it?


Winni(Posted 2008) [#2]
I have it. Win XP runs great in it, and Parallels offers an almost perfect and seamless integration of Windows with the OS X desktop. Vista also works, but due to its resource hunger, it's much slower than XP.

The Linux support in Parallels needs to improve. The Parallels Tools for Linux are still quite buggy and not as sophisticated as their Windows siblings; the integration is not as seamless as it is with Windows. It also depends on the actual Linux distribution that you are trying to run. The last time I tried it, Ubuntu Linux for example would only install when I assigned 512 MB memory to the VM -- it froze when I assigned more. (That problem does not exist with Windows VMs.)

The BootCamp support can also be a bit tricky. Better use it only when you have a corporate version of Windows installed, otherwise it might always require a re-activation when you use the different boot options (booting natively or inside a VM).

You should download the trial version and give it a shot. You can test the real thing for 30 days for free and you can't do anything wrong with it. Parallels Desktop for Mac is a very good product with only a few weak spots (no multi-core support, yet, and rather weak support for alternate systems like FreeBSD).

If you're mainly interested in Windows (XP), Parallels Desktop is probably the best available virtualization option for the Mac at the moment. If you want to use *BSDs or other alternate systems, VMWare Fusion might be a better choice for you.


Manromen(Posted 2008) [#3]
I'm using VMWare Fusion and its very great. I use Windows XP Pro and Ubuntu Linux with it (mainly for compiling BlitzMax programs). For Windows it supports an Unity mode too (Windows programs like OsX programs).
You could try the trials of both (Parallels and VMWare) and check what fits your requirements.


Dreamora(Posted 2008) [#4]
VMWare Fusion especially allows you to use both cores in Windows / Linux. Parallels is single core only per virtualized OS