Parallels: More Proof VMs are the Future
on 12.02.06, 07:05am in mac • comments (6)
On of the best software purchases that I’ve made is Parallels. As you probably know, a new beta hit the streets yesterday with some really amazing new features:
- Virtual Machines Catalogue.
- One-click Virtual Machine Aliases.
- Resizable Main Window.
- Auto-Adjusting Screen Resolution.
- Drag and Drop files and folders between Windows and Mac.
- Read/Write BootCamp partition.
- Boot from BootCamp partition.
- Parallels Transporter Beta bundled.
- Coherency.
- Improved graphic performance.
- Connect/disconnect USB devices schema improved.
- Up to 5 Virtual NICs.
- Enhanced Shared Networking Mode.
- Switch between networking modes on-the-fly.
- Transparent mapping of Command-AZXCV key combinations.
- Power On/Power Off/Suspend/Resume/Pause animation.
- Shared folders configuration on-the-fly.
- Drag and Drop CD/FDD images and folders to the Parallels Desktop status bar.
Best part? All of these are free updates for registered users.
While being able to boot an operating system into a virtual machine from the bootcamp partition is interesting, for me, the absolute coolest feature is coherency. This basically allows you to run an application outside the parallels destop For example, check out Visual Studio 2005 running directly on the mac desktop:
This software really has changed the way I use computers.
Tommy Williams (December 2, 2006 @ 12:05 pm)
Man, that makes it tough. It’s getting about time for me to buy a new computer at home and when I see posts like this it makes it awfully hard to go buy a machine that can only run Windows. Especially when it opens up the possibility of exploring some of the Mac-only digital photography tools, without giving up the Windows-only tools that I rely on.
Steve (December 2, 2006 @ 12:59 pm)
Exactly. I use a mac almost full time now, but I can use Windows whenever I feel like it.. It’s pretty awesome.
gdkzen (December 2, 2006 @ 8:18 pm)
For a second there I was reminded of seamless windows aps in OS/2 2.X - but this looks like it actually works! How is the comparitive perfomance between VS running natively v. on a Mac w/ Parallels?
Steve (December 3, 2006 @ 9:36 am)
It’s been great, seems to be around the same speed for me.
Michael Brundage (December 3, 2006 @ 2:04 pm)
I’m posting this from the future. Save the cheerleader.
Anonymous (December 6, 2006 @ 9:18 am)
Given the direction I see M$ going with Vista, I’m strongly considering a switch, and I’m a developer on exclusively M$ software!