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Parallels Desktop for Mac: Vista support, fast 3D graphics, new interface coming soon

Tuesday, August 8, 2006 · 9:20 pm · 24 Comments

“Monday saw two substantial news items of note to Mac users who want or need to run Windows and other X86-compatible operating systems on their Intel Macs. First, established enterprise virtualization technology developer VMWare announced plans to support the Mac, and Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit said it won’t develop its once-popular PC emulator Virtual PC to run on Intel-based Macs,” Peter Cohen reports for Macworld.

Cohen reports, “Both of these developments, said Parallel spokesman Ben Rudolph, point to Parallels’ dominant position as a virtual machine developer for Mac OS X [Parallels Desktop for Mac]. ‘While we’re glad that VMWare is endorsing the Apple market and foresaw their entry as part of their focus on enterprise-class software and building products for highly technical users like software developers and testers, we believe that Desktop’s unmatched ease of use, consumer-focused feature set, as well as our strong backing from Apple and great retail presence in the Apple Stores, Staples, Office Depot and more, will keep us the number one choice for Apple users who want to run Windows on their Macs,’ said Rudolph in a statement.”

Cohen reports that Parallels promises Vista support, fast 3D graphics, and a “groundbreaking” new interface are coming soon.

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "vitaboy" for the heads up.]

Related MacDailyNews articles:
VMWare announces signup to try out VMware Virtualization for Mac OS X – August 07, 2006
Apple to start selling Parallels Desktop for Mac in Apple Retail Stores – July 18, 2006

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Comment Feed

24 Comments

Kicking M$ in the nutz

Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 9:49 pm · Reply

Yea, keep it going Parallels, just watch out you don’t get taken over by Microsoft, which probally is your plan.

Redmond is getting nervous.

MDN word: “hell” Wouldn’t you rather have a CeLL in HeLL with a DeLL? Didn’t think so.
j

Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 9:52 pm · Reply

I think the reason that Apple started stocking Parallels in their stores was to let us know that they were not going to include virtualization technology in Leapord
Jaakko

Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 10:08 pm · Reply

I’m just wondering how on earth are they going to give us 3d graphics in virtualization environment? To my knowledge it would require a dual core graphics card with virtualization support, one core for each operating system or multiple card each dedicated to one operating system. Correct if I’m way off… Atleast one industry insider told me that the biggest obstacle in full virualization is the graphics card for the reason I wrote above…
Darth Avenus

Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 10:16 pm · Reply

I can’t get a handle on it, but I sense either Apple or Micro$oft will go buy Parallels. If it’s the latter, then I’m banking on Apple trotting out Leopard with an advanced virtualization technology. Remember, similarly Apple didn’t flinch when M$ scooped up Connectix, maker of VirtualPC, probably in part because it knew it would eventually be releasing MacOS X for Intel, and Boot Camp later on. If Apple buys Parallels, then the world is Apple’s oyster.
snowy2004

Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 10:24 pm · Reply

Jaakko, I’m no expert but could there be a way to freeze OSX or minimize it’s use of the system to optimize performance making it that the Virtual Machine in Parallels can offer 3D graphics at near native quality or somehow lauch the VM in a Boot Camp like enviroment while “saving” OS X to the hard drive while using the VM.
Mike Napolitano

Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 10:44 pm · Reply

Question for the technicaly astute. As I understand it, it’s not possible for any virtualization technoogy to take advantage of a dual or quad core system so that the windows apps could have access to and benifit from said multiple cores. only in a multitasking situation would the added cores be a help. so an 8 core 3 ghz machine would in essence be a single core 3 ghz machine as far as the guest OS and apps are concerned? is this the case now and are there reasons it will always be the case? tia
Mike Napolitano

Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 10:44 pm · Reply

Question for the technicaly astute. As I understand it, it’s not possible for any virtualization technoogy to take advantage of a dual or quad core system so that the windows apps could have access to and benifit from said multiple cores. only in a multitasking situation would the added cores be a help. so an 8 core 3 ghz machine would in essence be a single core 3 ghz machine as far as the guest OS and apps are concerned? is this the case now and are there reasons it will always be the case? tia
Nick

Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 11:57 pm · Reply

Like Microsoft gives a crap. Every copy of Parallels that sells just means another customer for Microsoft.
Nick

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 12:00 am · Reply

Apple is not going to buy Parallels. Phill Schiller already flat-out said that Apple is going with dual-boot, and leaving virtualization to third parties.
Object-X

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 12:01 am · Reply

I bet they have been getting much hate mail for that cheesey Windows looking interface. I despise it. I bet it earned the award for the worst interface.
Peter

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 12:13 am · Reply

…I don’t know about their interface, but they definitely have ugly shirts!
Nick

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 12:16 am · Reply

Parallels may only virtualize a single-core computer, but your other core is working hard to handle hard drive virtualization, networking, keyboard and mouse input, and everything else besides the CPU and memory that Windows is talking to. When I run Parallels on my MacBook Pro, both cores are working very hard to pretend to be a single-core Windows computer.

Now that we’ve got quad-core Intel Macs, Parallels has a reason to work on virtualizing multi-core computers; I’m sure they’ll offer that within the next year.
Steven

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 1:44 am · Reply

Jaakko -

1. Apple will have WINE running MS Office, Access, and a few of the top 10 games not ported to OS X. This will satisfy about 95% of consumers needs to move to Mac.

2. For those who need more, they will have amazing, built-in virtualization to install Vista or XP into.

Selling Parallels:

A. Helps Apple sell more Macs in their stores right now – and that is important.
B. Gets people use to the idea of running Windows as second fiddle, and brings acceptance to the whole virtual OS idea.
C. Selling copies of Parallels makes Apple money.
Jessica´s sister

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 5:37 am · Reply

I luv running Windows on my notbook!!! I start up my Mac, bootcamp over to Windows and stay there all day!
Macaday

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 6:14 am · Reply

My God but there really are some chronically sick people around in this world if they really believe Windows is better than OSX..!! Quite amazing.
SN

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 6:16 am · Reply

What about SPACES?? Can’t a ‘SPACE’ potentially act as another desktop or operating system?? I definitely think that APPLE as something cooking in Leopard!
Twenty Benson

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 6:25 am · Reply

I agree with Steven. I think a “Top Secret” part of Leopard will be ‘Spaces’ in which one of those Desktops will be a Windows-free environment running some major Windows apps in WINE – perhaps with a slightly different background to indicate you’re in a ‘special’ space and with an ‘aquafied’ GUI called in to replace the Windows GUI. Same for Linux too.

BTW. I think another Top Secret may be a dynamic shift to a REAL 3D (stereoscopic) environment applied across the GUI (REAL floating windows, REAL bevelled buttons, REAL click wheel etc) and within applications – to games, images etc. Anyone notice how Apple are introducing lots of references to ‘Time’ and ‘Space’ in their naming conventions and the look & feel of their graphics? It’s interesting also to see the developments in video ichat with applied backdrops. How’s it done? two iSight cameras mounted on the monitor (at the same distance apart as a pair of eyes) can calculate depth of field for objects (that’s why – in the demo – Phil Schiller had to move ‘off-screen’ before the backdrop could be applied!)… AND create a real 3D image just like a pair of eyes. NO?… Why did Steve Jobs’ monitor have exactly this TWO iSight camera arrangement in the Keynote? All that’s needed is a stereo 3D display (Lenticular, subpixel filter)… oh, Apple are also running down the costs of their current 2D monitor line-up.
Kent W.

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 6:41 am · Reply

Wouldn’t you need two iSights if you wanted a backup available if one computer hiccups (as it did during one part of the demo)?
Erl

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 8:59 am · Reply

Yeah the 2 iSights are used so that the backup system has one as well. The backdrop is done by comparing the picture without anyone in it to when there is someone in it )
Noraa Haras

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 9:20 am · Reply

Twenty, There were two iSight cameras because there were two computers. Remember the crash of iPhoto? Well you aren’t going to see the speaker start moving cables around… There’s no stereo stuff going on.

As for multi-cores, Parallels is working on it. It’s a bit tricky though because you have Mac OS X controlling those threads. I would expect instances of thread-lock as both OSes are kicking off threads all over the place, but they all have to go through OS X, which is notoriously bad at IO threads. The threads are secure and well-managed, but slow and limited.
lbuschjr

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 12:06 pm · Reply

Anyone else notice how this virtualization software has become the battle of the press releases claiming who has the best solution, except that it’s not available for the next few months or by the end of the year? Sure, Parallels has a shipping product, but they’re already talking about a new interface, etc. Talk about jockeying for position.
DLMeyer

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 1:19 pm · Reply

Just because Apple has said it is sticking with Boot Camp and leaving the virtualization fray to third parties (Xen, when will you be announcing?) does not mean Apple doesn’t have something related to virtualization hidden inside Leopard – one of those things they are ‘keeping under wraps’. An OS can do things to make virtualization easy, or hard, or remain essentially neutral. Tiger is essentially neutral, Leopard is likely to be friendly. Apple isn’t ‘doing virtualization’, they are just making it dead easy for others to do it. To give you Windows (snore) or Linux (hype!) or OpenBSD (why?) or Solarisx86 (hello, IT Guy?) or OpenVMS (yo! IT Guy!).

Sure, you have a Mac Pro with four cores to use and three legacy servers to get rid of – one core for your OS and VMWare (or whatever) and one each to run the servers on their ‘native OS’. Say ‘Amen’, Brother!
Nick

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 2:13 pm · Reply

Holy crap – I just installed the beta update for Parallels, and now my browser scrolling performance is much better in Windows Firefox within Parallels than it is in Safari under Mac OS 10.4.7 on my MacBook Pro. That’s just sick. It’s still not as liquid-smooth as it is booted in Windows, but it’s clearly performing better than Safari is.

On large pages, Safari scrolls in a chunky way when I grab the scroll bar and move it up and down, Firefox in Mac OS X is much worse, but Firefox in Windows (in Parallels, on the same computer) does it smoothly.
TheConfuzed1

Thursday, August 10, 2006 - 1:59 am · Reply

I would like to see Parallels allow the Windows volume to be an optional dual-boot solution, complete with full graphics support.

MW: Could. How appropriate.