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Parallels Desktop for OS X Reviewed
phaedo00 writes "Ars Technica has put up a great review of the first full release of Parallels' virtualization software for OS X, Parallels Desktop 1.0. From the article: 'Move over emulation, virtualization is in and it's hotter than two Jessica Albas wresting the devil himself in a pit of molten steel. It's no contest, virtualization has it all: multiple operating systems running on the same machine at nearly the full speed of the host's processor with each system seamlessly networking with the next. Add to that the fact that it's cheaper than getting a new machine and you have the guaranteed latest craze. Not even the Hula Hoop can stop this one.'"
Well, maybe people are reading the full arti...oh, right, Slashdot. Never mind.
So Taco, when did Harry Knowles join the editorial staff?
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
"..and it's hotter than two Jessica Albas wresting the devil himself in a pit of molten steel. It's no contest, virtualization has it all.."
Umm i hate to be the one pointing this out, but i for one can think of some very hot things about Jessica Albas that virtualization doesn't have.
Really.., can't compare
My only pet peeve is the way that the virtual machine mount USB drives only allows 1 OS to have access to the device at a time. So if you are on the Windows side and insert a drive, Mac does not see it, and vice versa. I am not sure if there is a way around that or not. But that really is the only annoyance that prevents me for managing the this seamlessly.
I hate sounding like such a fanboy, but this really is a great piece of software.
on my Gateway laptop and when combined with OSX, its pretty damn slick. If you plan on playing games or video, you should forget about it and just use Boot Camp, but if you're not using very demanding apps, its a godsend. AutoCAD runs really well, and its nice not having to reboot. If you are contemplating a virtualization app, be aware that you will need memory for both operating systems. 512 is painful, 1 gb can get slow at times, and 2gb is the sweet spot. If you are going to virtualize XP, try SP1 instead of 2. SP2 is a lot slower in virtualization (this was the case when using Virtual PC or VMWare).
I bought a MacBook Pro recently, with the intention of having a single machine for home (OS X) and office (WinXP). I tried out Parallels and there's no doubt that it is a very useful piece of software. Waving my hand over my Macbook (accomplished with Shadowbook + Virtuedesktops), caused my screen to rotate into either Windows XP or OS X at will. The processor speed, because the Core Duo is simply being virtualized, is pretty much full speed. On the other hand, the Mobility Radeon X1600 GPU (with its 256MB of VRAM goodness) cannot be virtualized, so Parallels must emulate an 8meg SVGA card. This makes the graphics of Windows XP seem sluggish. Since I am transitioning from a 4-year old Dell Inspiron that is very peppy and snappy in the GPU department, I refused to tolerate any sluggishness whatsoever in my new ($2K+) computer. I installed Boot Camp yesterday and then installed Windows XP. After you install the Apple-provided drivers for the MacBook (including Radeon drivers), the system runs incredibly smooth under XP. The only special thing I had to do was install Windows 2003 Server Resource Kit (free from MS) to re-map my right Command key as a delete key so that I could use ctl-alt-delete to login to my domain.
If you need to use Windows XP all day as your work OS (as I do), you will find Boot Camp to be the superior solution, if only for the snappiness of the system. I don't need to use OS X at work for any reason, so dual-booting works for me. If you only use a few Windows apps irregularly and will primarily use OS X all day, then Parallels is the way to go. Keep in mind that Boot Camp is free, while Parallels costs $.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
this is exactly what the tagging system is here for, folks. Two weeks from now when you wonder "what was that thing? About wrestling? I think it was with the devil? Or maybe devils?" slashdot tagging beta will be there to bail you out.
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
Anybody care to summarize the pros and cons of Parallels vs VMWare?
The latter is vaporware on OS.X.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
Sorry, but by definition nothing can be hotter than virtualization as any powerful enough virtualization system can allow you to have N simultaneous copies of the thing you are claiming is hotter.
Thus a proper virtualization system would allow you to have two simultaneous Jessica Albas, which I think was being hinted at in the "wrestling the devil" portion of the post. The devil I guess was a methaphor for memory consumption, while the molten steel plainly referred to the processor load and resulting core temperatures.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Your post is from April 26, which means you were using the beta. Since when did we start expecting beta software not to crash your system? I've had a crash or two with the beta, but the release version has been as solid as a rock.