Yesterday, Parallels unveiled Parallels Desktop 4.0. The virtualisation tool for the Mac. Parallels allows you to run several operating systems 'on top' of Mac OS X, similar to VMware, Qemu, and other similar tools. Version 4.0 comes packed with new features and improvements.
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Member since:2006-07-25
It's quite easy, purchase VMware for the simple fact that there feature rich updates are free of charge.
I purchased Parallels 2.0 and then paid for the upgrade to 3.0. The purchase to 3 was the most annoying as i had upgraded to leopard and needed 3 to get parallels to work. I know many will say that i didn't have to pay to upgrade to leopard so it's not technically parallels fault, however all of these things and more were given to the users of VMWare.
I know that the next time i have to pay to upgrade i will be switching to VMWare. I don't care for bling, i just need fast and stable windows virtualisation on the Mac.
Member since:2007-01-01
Member since:2005-07-07
I just got my first intel mac this week. I installed virtualbox 2.0 and have installed unbuntu, windows and opensolaris.
It works really well. I can't justify spending money on Parallels or Fusion.
Unless you really need the 3D support, virtualbox should meet your needs for free.
Member since:2005-11-10
Member since:2005-07-06
I'm a happy Fusion user. Parallels' newest version has some nifty stuff that Fusion doesn't, most notably hardware-accelerated OpenGL support (they both have DX9), the ability to use removeable media from both OSes simultaneously, and the ability to browse files on/from either platform seamlessly (Fusion lets you browse Mac files on Windows but it's very slow, and it can browse Windows files from the Mac only when the Windows VM is shut down).
All this is really nice and enticing. But despite it all, VMWare is just rock-solid, and Parallels (at least in previous iterations) has not had nearly as good a record. Also, as mentioned the upgrade from Fusion 1.0->2.0 was free. That was a very nice early Christmas present this year 
.
Parallels pioneered the Windows-on-Macintel market, and is still kicking out innovative products and spurring the market onward. More power to them. I'll wait to see what the reviews say about the new version's stability before recommending it to anyone, though.
Edited 2008-11-13 19:55 UTC
Member since:
2007-01-01
Please help me decide which to buy - Parallels or Fusion