virtualization
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Beta Beat: Parallels puts beta 2 goodness in stockings
Mere days before the big sleigh ride, Parallels has kicked out Beta 2 of the next Parallels Desktop. This build features improvements to Coherence mode, Boot Camp compatibility, USB2 high-speed support (no audio/video in, but HDs and printers are OK), CD burning, Coherence mode app-docking and hide/show integration... busy busy busy.The beta support forum at Parallels is pages deep with issues and caveats on the first round of the beta, especially with respect to Boot Camp partition support. Apparently the bug that prevented use of FAT32-format volumes has been corrected, but please proceed with caution; you can track issues with the new build on this thread. Owners of the current PD release can use existing activation codes with the beta, and newbies can request a trial key.[via MacTech]
Lifehacker takes on Parallels Coherence
We've already covered the insanely feature-rich Parallels beta, including Scott's post on the new Coherence (Windows apps on the Mac desktop) mode. Now Adam Pash at Lifehacker has done a pretty complete runthrough of setting up Coherence mode for best effect, including proper desktop config and some strategies for launching Windows apps from the Dock. The beta is available free for download from Parallels' forums. If you have an Intel Mac with enough RAM and an XP2 license, and you haven't tried it yet, you should.The remarkable thing about the Parallels story is that a program that nobody in the Mac world had heard of before April of this year has become, in only eight months, not only a best-of-breed virtualization tool but also a strategically important product for the entire Mac platform. It's the tool that Virtual PC wanted to be but never truly was: a genuine productivity solution for cross-platform work and a real argument for the success of the Mac in enterprise environments. Very exciting, and the beta bodes well for an equally lively 2007.Thanks Gerry!
Crossover for the Mac Beta
CodeWeavers has just released the beta of Crossover for the Mac. What the heck is Crossover for the Mac? It is a WINE environment that allows you to run Windows applications along side OS X applications, without the need for virtualization. This product will be a boon for those folks that only need one Windows application from time to time.I had a chance to install this on my MacBook Pro (this works on Intel Macs only, folks), and it is obviously still a beta. I was able to install Office 2003, but Outlook refused to connect to my Exchange server, which pretty would be the only reason I would be using Crossover. However, it is still a beta so these things will happen (it also froze up a few times). You can check out more pics of Crossover in action over at Engadget.
Run Vista on your Intel Mac with Q
Parallels Desktop is all the rage in Mac virtualization these days, but it doesn't offer one major feature (yet): the ability to run Vista on an Intel Mac (believe it or not, this will be useful to many a Mac user). Sure, they've promised it's coming on their blog, but who wants to wait for Parallels when the open source virtualization project Q can already do it?That's right: if you have a copy of the public beta 2 of Vista (which unfortunately closed not long ago), you can check out their documentation (which boldly welcomes Parallels switchers) with simple instructions for installing Vista as a virtual machine. However: I don't know yet what is and is not supported under Q. Parallels has had issues up until this latest beta with supporting a lot of USB devices, amongst other things. Vista requires some heavy video card support, so I don't know how well it will run depending on how much support Q (and the QEMU project it's based on) has baked in.While I snagged a copy of Q already and installed Ubuntu in it, I'm still turning over every half-empty box in this new townhouse trying to find my Vista images. If you readers beat me to the punch, by all means, share your experience in the comments.
VMware announces Mac client
We knew this was coming, but it is nice to see official confirmation. VMware has just posted pre-registration for their VMware client for Intel Macs. What does this mean? Parallels will have some competition in the Mac virtualization space (remember that virtualization is the technology that allows you to run 'virtual' copies of other OSes on your Mac), amongst other things.This is a big deal because VMware is a heavy hitter in the Enterprise space, and it is always good to see those kinds of companies come to the Mac. Not to mention this might mean that OS X virtual machines running on non-Apple hardware might soon be possible.
Parallels Desktop official in Apple Stores with rebate offer
I was in an Apple Store here in CO yesterday and noticed that retail boxes of Parallels Desktop have arrived on the shelves. In fact, I had a nice discussion with a customer who was switching because he could now run Windows on a new Mac (he never considered Virtual PC an option - I personally don't blame him). He even used the term 'safety net' to refer to how often he hoped to have to run Windows - if ever.I also just received an email from Parallels promoting a $20 rebate with the purchase of Parallels Desktop ($80) and Windows XP (either $200 for Home or $300 for Pro). The rebate is good through August 15th, and Windows XP must be purchased within 14 days of Parallels Desktop.
Move your Boot Camp install of Windows to Parallels
Boot Camp and Parallels: two very different ways to run Windows on your Mac and never the twain shall meet, right? Not so fast, there is a way to migrate your Windows install from a Boot Camp install (or for that matter ANY Windows install whether it be on a Mac or a PC) to Parallels. It isn't exactly easy, and it does require lots of disk space and some third party apps, but if you really want to go virtual follow these instructions.[via Infinite Loop]
Virtual PC goes free - but not for Mac OS X
Good news everyone: Microsoft has released Virtual PC into the wild for free - but not for 'the rest of us'. That's right: an announcement on a MSDN blog (Microsoft Developer Network) has released Virtual PC 2004 as a free download for Windows users, and it offers details of VPC 2007 along the lines of support for Vista and improved performance over version 2004 (who on Earth thought it was a good idea to use years as a versioning system?). Of course, there isn't even an ETA that Microsoft can start delaying for version 2007, so we're guessing around 2010/2011 for the new version. This move makes sense in light of Parallels making headlines virtually overnight (pun intended), sparking what seems like a renewed interest in the virtualization market.[via Daring Fireball]
Apple's Windows site mentions Parallels Desktop instead of Boot Camp
"If you've ever wished you could enjoy the best of both worlds, now you can" is a phrase at the bottom of Apple's Windows section of their Get a Mac site, and I think they mean that phrase now more than ever. I can't even find Apple's own Boot Camp mentioned on the 'you can even run Windows' page of Apple's Get a Mac site - surprisingly, it's Parallels Desktop that has the spotlight now. Could Apple be giving Boot Camp the back seat in favor of the no-rebooting convenience of Parallels Desktop? Or might Parallels be working with Apple on virtualization (or a buyout) for the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard? Is it possible for us to come up with any more wild speculation? Time will only tell.[thanks blackout!]
Parallels Desktop official release, discount pricing ends July 15th
After months of betas and release candidates, Parallels has brought their fantastic Desktop OS virtualization software to an official release. As you might remember from their last release candidate, they have also listened to user feedback and bundled their Compressor Server tool for optimizing virtual disks and streamlining the amount of disk space they take up, which also brought the final price up to $79.99. However, until July 15th, Parallels is still offering a discount price of $49.99, so get those credit cards out if Boot Camp doesn't quite cut it.[thanks for the tip, Mark!]
Parallels Desktop Release Candidate 2, uh, released
Get your mice clicking ladies and gentlemen, as Parallels has offered up the final test version of Parallels Desktop for Mac, their virtualization software that allows you to run almost any OS right within Mac OS X. With this version, however, Parallels has increased the app's final price to $79.99, as they have incorporated their Compressor Server tool (due to user feedback) into the software package for streamlining and optimizing your virtual machines and the amount of disk space they occupy. The beta testing pre-order price of $39.99 is still in place, and probably more appetizing than ever. Other new features and improvements in the Release Candidate 2 include: Significantly improved performance Improved USB performance and broader device support Improved Host-guest networking Automatic network adapters now switch on-the-fly Guest OS no longer steals host IP address in some DHCP servers Fullscreen mode is now customizable Integration with Virtue is now bug-free Customizable Ctrl + Click mapping Guest 32bit color is supported when Parallels Tools is installed Improved Shared folders performance Resolved shared folders/MS Office incompatibility issues Windows 98 no longer consumes 99% host CPU even when idle (in VT-x mode) Also note that if you download this newest release, you must re-install the Parallels Tools for guest Windows installations (NT/2000/XP/2003). As with previous beta releases, this download is free before the software package goes official.
Parallels Workstation 2.1 beta6
Parallels has cranked out a 6th beta of their most excellent virtualizating Workstation software for Intel Macs. Fixes and improvements in this latest version include: USB fixes (more devices supported: PDA, scanner, etc.) Shared Folders fixes (added support for guest Windows 2000) Network improvements: host-only networking Custom video resolutions support added
Parallels Workstation beta 4 raises the bar, offers improvements
Parallels has released a 4th Beta of their much-hyped Workstation software for Intel-based Macs that allows OS virtualization (not just Windows) within Mac OS X. Improvements and fixes in this new beta include: 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 "Sleep" mode when a VM is running Many other minor bug fixes Don't forget: in addition to running Windows XP within Mac OS X, one of the largest appeals of Parallels Workstation is that you can run a whole slew of other OSs from Windows 3.1 - 2003, any Linux distro, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS/2 and MS-DOS - all running inside a full-featured, secure environment within Mac OS X.
Why your school doesn't want boot camp
A trend I'd like to see go the way of the dodo: every time Apple introduces something new that doesn't seem to appeal to the average home user, the net lights up with wild speculation that it's for the education market. Most of the time it's not, and Boot Camp is no exception. The reaction to Boot Camp from MacEnterprise and other education and business Mac communities has not been positive. It's ranged from "wait and see" to "why me?" with most of the responses at the "why me?" end. Boot Camp is, in the words of University sysadmin and TUAW reader Jason Young, quite possibly "any IT staff member’s worst nightmare come true." And here are just a few of the reasons I think he's right:First, we live in a very imperfect world. Heterogeneous networks are messy, messy things. Sure there are protocols for Active Directory, Open Directory, LDAP, DHCP, etc., but vendors do one of two things: fail to implement the spec properly, or add a bunch of proprietary bells and whistles that aren't part of the spec, are technically add-ons, but still seem to mysteriously cause hardware or software to fail when they aren't present. Throw a couple of DNS forwarding issues, some CISCO equipment and maybe a Radius server into the mix, and things get ugly fast. What's the admins final line of defense against complete network chaos? Hardware addressing. Figure out what hardware is sitting at which MAC address, and build policies based on that. It's not ideal, but it's the the way the real world works. If you can't predict the OS type from the MAC, your job becomes 10 times harder in a flash.Second, nobody actually wants to reboot. It's time consuming, stressful on the hardware, and just generally not too much fun. It also means getting users in the habit of interacting with the firmware, which is something sane sysadmins want to avoid at all costs. What admins, and others, want is real virtualization. Not dual booting. Not emulation and compatibility layers. Real virtualization. When Apple delivers that, there will be partying in the streets.Third, there's no support and it doesn't look like there's ever going to be. Unlike the rest of us peons, large education and enterprise clients spend a lot of money on premium AppleCare services. They have reps who know them by name, and part of what makes Macs appealing is that you call one number and get integrated hardware and OS support. If Apple won't support Windows, dual booting will mean buying a second support contract for the same machine. hat more than negates the cost benefit of a single machine solution. Beige boxes are cheap and procurement already has contracts with HP and Dell. There is, of course, a potential for third parties here to step up and become Apple Authorized Resellers offering pre-configured machines with support, but that's a niche market. Most organizations that buy Macs want to deal directly with Apple.And then for education tech support, there's the added fun of personal machines that people use to connect to the network....Individual admins, of course, are thrilled. Being able do dual boot, say, a MacBook Pro means only needing one machine to administer everything. But supporting it for users? That's a different story.
Parallels Windows virtualization beta
Hot on the heels of Apple's Boot Camp announcement, Parallels has announced Parallels Workstation 2.1 Beta for Mac OS X, a beta of their virtualization software for Intel Macs. Their software allows you to run Windows in OS X, much like Virtual PC, without the need to actually boot into Windows.Using their software you can run lots of version of Windows (3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, Me, 2000, NT, XP, 2003), any Linux distribution, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS/2, eComStation, or MS-DOS and for the moment the software is free (and in beta). When it is out of beta the software is expected to cost $49.99Thanks to everyone who sent this in.