Parallels today announced that its Desktop for Mac virtualization software is available for purchase for $79.99, following the conclusion of a Beta program that generated more than 100,000 testers from 71 countries and has resulted in the current stable, high-performance version.
As a special incentive to new customers, the company will make the product available for $49.99 for 30 days following today’s announcement.
Parallels Desktop is the first solution for Intel processor-based Macs that enables users to run Windows XP – or any other operating system – simultaneously in isolated “virtual machines” directly on a Mac OS X desktop, giving them the ability to use Windows programs at the same time as their favorite Mac applications. This is different from Apple’s recently announced “Boot Camp” dual boot solution, in which users must work in either Windows XP or Mac OS X, and completely shut down one to access the other.
“Parallels Desktop enables Mac users to access Windows programs without giving up the functionality, power and usability of their Mac OS X desktops,” said Nick Dobrovolskiy, CEO of Parallels, in the press release. “We’ve broken through the barrier that previously kept Mac and Windows from effectively working together side-by-side, simultaneously, on one computer.”
Parallels near-native performance and rock-solid stability is driven by its hypervisor-powered virtualization engine, and full support for Intel Virtualization Technology, which is included in all new Mac Mini, iMac, and MacBook Pro computers.
“Using Intel’s Early Access Program, Parallels has innovatively used Intel Virtualization Technology on Intel dual-core processors, to empower the Apple community with the ability to drive productivity and flexibility via its powerful virtualization solution,” said Melissa Laird, general manager of Intel’s Global Developer Relations Division, in the release.
Important Features in Parallels Desktop for Mac:
• Run any version of Windows at the same time as Mac OS X at near-native speeds, without having to dual-boot or shut down their Mac desktop.
• Users can also run Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS/2, eComStation, or MS-DOS programs alongside Mac OS X applications.
• Safely share files and “cut and paste” data between Windows and Mac OS X programs.
• Expand a virtual machine to full-screen size on a primary display, or export and expand it on a secondary display.
• Reduce Windows 2000, 2003 and XP virtual machine hard drive size by 50 percent or more with Parallels Compressor technology. This tool, which retails for $179, is included free with each copy of Parallels Desktop for Mac.
In addition to its Mac product, the company offers Parallels Workstation for Windows and Linux powered machines. These versions are available for purchase at the same low price of $49.99 per license. The company is also developing server virtualization solutions. Parallels Server, due in mid-2006, is targeted at small- and medium-size businesses looking to maximize hardware resources and curb information technology (IT) costs. Parallels Enterprise Server is a high-end server virtualization solution designed to help large enterprises effectively virtualize and manage their significant server resources.
More info here.
Ina Fried reports for ZDNet, “A potential challenge for the start-up is that Apple may decide to offer, in addition to Boot Camp, a feature that acts more like Parallels in allowing Windows programs to run within the Mac OS. There has been speculation that Leopard might have such abilities. Parallels marketing manager Ben Rudolph said Parallels can’t spend its time worrying about what others might do. ‘All we do is virtualisation,’ he said. ‘Apple has got hundreds of different products. I believe we are going to have a faster, better solution regardless of what happens.'”
Full article here.
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DLMeyer
One program that my father must run is MacDraw, and it requires OS9 (or less). He purchased a iBook the day before the MacBook came out, and was happy he did to be able to keep using this program.
If you or anyone else knows of a good substitute (that isn’t a expensive CAD program), he would be pleased to know about it.
well SheepShaver is a Mac OS 9 classic like application that is universal now and runs on intel so i dont see any argument there
One small problem with Parallels.. it only emulates a USB 1.1 port… not USB2..
DLMeyer
I have a hypercard stack that controls a radio transmitter. Surely don’t see the necessity to invest in a new version. The old Mac OS 9 box can keep running it. I’ve hundreds of Pagemaker files which get updates from time to time. Not at all interested investing in new software and converting them. There is a text editor, QUED, which I like for its macro language support. Not everyone plays old games.
THANKS PARALLELS ! ! !
Macintosh users have been waiting over 20 years to have a awesome solution such as this. Before Boot Camp & Parallels’ Workstation, the pickings were slim. As they have always been… I consulted for a large corporation that loved Macs and wanted to standardize on the platform but needed to run that 1 PC program. And there was NEVER a good solution. I remember the PC product that sat underneath a Mac SE that was a PC and only used the Mac to render video, Orange Micro’s various solutions, Apple even had their own PC compatability card, Virtual PC, and the list goes on. All at a HUGE sacrafice in terms of performance and cost.
NOW WE ARE FREE.
If there is a PC program out there that we really need to run, now we can! At the same speed as on a PC AND at almost no cost (BootCamp-free, Parallels-79) vs where we were just 6 months ago.
THIS IS AWESOME ! ! !
“Has anyone had any experience running MS Access apps under Parallels?”
Nope, but I’ve run them under windows, and they suck ass. Do yourself a favor and try Filemaker.
Voyager and benjamin,
The Windows 95 and Windows 98 CDs are not bootable. If you have access to a PC with a floppy drive, create a startup floppy disk in Windows and then use that floppy to create a bootable CD in Nero Burning Rom or other CD burning programs. Then use that CD to boot the virtual machine in Parallels.
Parallels is indeed a fantastic software package. However, in my experience with it over the last 60 days I’ve found that it handles CDs very poorly. In fact, I could not install Win XP on my mini directly from the CD. I had to make an iso disk image first before I could install. Subsequent installs of Win software have required the same solution. The Mini just likes to grind away at the PC CD-ROM until finally it simply stops and neither Windows, Parallels, nor OS X can eject the disk. A complete restart while holding down the mouse button is the only solution.
Thank you everyone who responded to my question about W95.
I will head to bootdisk.com and get a disk there (I still have an old PC clunker around).
I was very happy with Parallels until recently. I received an email regarding an upgrade to the program so I immediately downloaded it. Among other things, the upgrade was supposed to improve your ability to share files from the Mac with the PC. It instead made it near impossible. Whereas I had no problems with the sharing ability before, now when I start XP, I am able to open the shared folder for a few minutes, but then just stops working all of a sudden. It tells me that I don’t have permission to access these files and that I should contact the administrator. I have fiddled with this for about a week and have emailed Parallels Support for assistance, but I have come up with no solution at all and they haven’t replied to me yet (after several days). I would greatly appreciate any ideas that anyone might have to solve this very annoying problem. I run a business with this computer so the sharing feature is very important to me.
does anyone know how to run PC CD ROM software using parallels… the problem that I get is that the virtual win XP thinks the game disk in my cd rom is a copy… it says to remove the copy and put in the original… I have tried to make an image using the image tool, but I have the same problem.