SillyDog701

[Antony]

Parallels released their free beta version of Windows virtualisation solution - Parallels Workstation 2.1 - for Intel based Macs today. It is currently available as free beta, and fully functional.



Unlike Apple's [sdt=11185]Boot Camp[/sdt], Parallels Workstation 2.1 Beta does not require switching (booting) into Windows XP (dual boot), it enables users to run Windows, Linux or any other X86 based operating system at the same time as Mac OS X. Parallels Workstation is based on Intel's Virtualization Technology “VTâ€

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[Antony]

Parallels Workstation is similar to VMware and Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac. However, VMware is not yet available for Mac (to my knowledge), and Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac does not run on Intel-based Mac (yet). Parallels Workstation 2.1 seems to be the first virtualisation software available for Intel-based Macs.

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[Pu7o]

Parallels workstation seems very fast, although there is one important problem...

Full Screen Mode does not work yet.

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0)

[Antony]

You don't need to run in full screen (or maximised), run Windows in windows mode. [sdt=10821]reference[/sdt]

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[Don_HH2K]

You don't need to run in full screen (or maximised), run Windows in windows mode. [sdt=10821]reference[/sdt]

Personally, I find it much more efficient to run most programs maximized, rather than having a plethora of windows opened at any given time. I find it hard to use VMware in windowed mode anyway; I'd argue that virtualization is best served one desktop at a time, instead of running multiple ones on the same screen. It's a matter of personal preference; I've seen Windows users that prefer using individual windows, and Mac users that prefer running things fullscreen.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060130 Donzilla/1.1PR1 (WML/1.3)

[Antony]

Wired News has a nice report, Windows on Mac, Simultaneously.

Virtualization is heating up in the corporate market, and it's likely only a matter of time before it becomes standard issue on most computers. In a sign of what's to come, VMWare this week announced it would give away a key specification for defining and formatting virtual machine environments. Microsoft fired back by offering up its Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition, also for free.

Virtualization for the Mac has been slower to market, but promises to explode. CodeWeavers, the primary corporate backers of the open-source Wine Project, which allows Windows applications to run in Linux, has said it will release a Mac OS X version of CrossOver Office, a shrink-wrapped version of the technology.

...

But Parallels' Rudolph said dual-booting systems are not in tune with the way people work. Having to shut down OS X to boot into Windows wastes time, he said, adding that a Mac running Parallels' virtualization software is almost as fast as a dedicated Windows box.

"If a native Windows machine runs at 100 out of 100 on speed, our version of virtualization runs at a 90 or 95," he said. "It's very fast and very stable."

That said, not all of the new Intel-Macs will handle virtualization equally. Parallels Workstation is expected to run better on the MacBook Pro and iMac than it will on the Mac mini, Rudolph said. That's because the two higher-end machines include chip-level hardware support, known as Intel virtualization technology, or VT, that improves performance to near-native levels, he said.

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[Antony]

Pedro's Parallels

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[Mandrake]

Superb. By using Virtualisation (VT) the program will be much faster than VMware or Virtual PC.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060111 Firefox/1.5.0.1

[profman]

One article that I read makes the point that Apple still will be tying its OS to its own hardware whereas Microsoft is quite liberal in letting Windows run on any number of hardware platforms. It goes on to suggest that, in this respect, Apple is conspiring more than other "evil empires" (in order to keep profits up).

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915

[Pu7o]

Well, if Apple licensed its OS for general usage they'd go near-bankrupt. It's not an option for them.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.0.2) Gecko/20060310 Camino/1.0.0+ (Pu7o)

[Antony]

Parallels Workstation 2.1 Beta 4 is now available for download. The price has cut US$ 10 if you pre-order it.

New features in this release:
What’s new in this version:
[list][*]Introduced full screen mode
[*]Introduced dual-monitor support
[*]Improved real CD/DVD support
[*]Improved, easier to use interface.
[*]Better sound support, including a fix for Windows 2000 guest OS
[*]Networking kernel panics resolved
[*]Bridged networking issues fixed
[*]WiFi networking issues fixed
[*]Fixed some of the issues encountered when entering “Sleepâ€

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[profman]

Well, if Apple licensed its OS for general usage they'd go near-bankrupt. It's not an option for them.

I think Apple should be able sell its OS (at a suitably high price, of course) just like Microsoft does. It's Apple's practice of charging inflated prices for its tethered hardware/OS combinations that restricts Apple products to a niche of sorts, but it's OK with me if they have to charge other people high prices if that's what they need in order to continue to exist.

I do not have an Apple product and probably will not buy one until the price is reasonable (and, just maybe, be able to run Windows). I would, however, also be more than happy (given the right price) to run the Apple OS on a "Windows" machine.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915

[Antony]

Parallels Workstation is getting better now. Version 2.1 beta 5 includes USB support and shared folders plus "transition effect".

Improvements and Fixes in Beta5:

• Introduced USB support. Connect your favorite USB devices directly to a virtual machine!
• Introduced shared folders. Share files between Mac OS X and any Windows XP or Windows 2003 guest virtual machine!
• Support for dynamic screen resolutions has been introduced. This means that when you choose a guest OS, a list of available screen resolutions is dynamically populated with primary OS resolutions.
• Fixed keyboard mapping problems and the mouse pointer lag problem
• Improved sound support. The sound lag problem has also been fixed.
• Fixed problems with sleeping/waking up the primary OS when a VM is running
• Introduced the ability to resize a guest when switching to fullscreen mode
• Added optional "transition cube" animation for transitioning to and from fullscreen mode. This is a really cool feature that makes switching between OSes in fullscreen mode very easy. There's a video of an early version of this feature in action here.
• Fixed several kernel panics
• Added default network adapter for bridged mode
• There's a new and improved Parallels Tools package in Beta5. To update, open your VM, log in, click the "VM" menu, and click "Install Parallels Tools"

(from Parallels Virtualization blog)

You can download Parallels Workstation 2.1 Beta5 for Mac OS X (15.2 MB)

Parallels Workstation 2.1 for Mac OS X requires Macs with Intel processors.

Thanks to Jack Lin for applewoods for heads up.

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