[Macworld]

Post your comments for Parallels Desktop Switch To Mac here

[ken821]

I am a new MAC user after 25 years of pc usage. I purchased Parallels for Mac and was VERY unhappy with it. I received an error message for which there was NO documentation. I made at least 10 phone calls trying to get to someone in support to assist me. I finally returned the program and sent a letter to the President of the company explaining my displeasure with his program, company and lack of support. This is NOT as easy as they make it out to be!!

[PoopaAnski]

To ken821,
Mac's are a pleasure to use and well worth the effort to learn a few basic things. But, you're absolutely correct about Parallels, may I suggest one thing, for a virtualization software that is reliable and hassle free, give VMWare Fusion a try.

I switched from Parallels almost 2 years ago and I've never looked back. Never once over the 2 years have I ever had a problem with Fusion. Yes, all companies encourage you to upgrade, but to tell the truth, I haven't had a need to. Parallels stopped working for me after about 8 months, customer service was of no use to me and I had uninstall/ reinstall at least 3 times before I gave up and sold my copy. Make life easier on yourself check out some of the other people (on Amazon) who switched from both Windows and Parallels and went with Fusion.

[kimen]

I prefer VirtualBox. It lacks a few of the clever integration features of the others but it has the advantage of being completely free.
http://www.virtualbox.org/

[Maxer]

I agree Fusion is far better, mainly when USB devices are involved.

[Dan]

kimen, on 05 March 2010 - 08:03 AM, said:

I prefer VirtualBox. It lacks a few of the clever integration features of the others but it has the advantage of being completely free.
http://www.virtualbox.org/

Completely agree as a long time user of VirtualBox and having used parallels and vmware fusion for years. The latest iteration of VirtualBox is very stable and supports a number of host and guest OSes.

[BrianM]

VirtualBox is great for standard apps... but the latest Parallels & VMWare have 3D support, which can allow some 3D design and even games to run without having to reboot if you have a bootcamp partition setup.

Parallels 4 & 5 have been a pretty big improvement over earlier versions, every install I've done has gone smoothly (except one Windows 7 install, when I typo'd the COA) and the only customers I've had bring in were user error (deleting the VM data file holding everything while "cleaning up" their documents folder)

[walfy]

Parallels has been working great for me. I had to run UPS WorldShip software in an all-Mac office. WorldShip works only in Windows, so Parallels does the trick. But I should say it only runs just that one program, no power-users running multiple Windows programs on a Mac.

[Eric72]

Most of my friends who've switched to Mac, were using Parallels. They never had any issues. Mind you it only took them about 2 weeks to get used the Mac environment, and have not gone back to Windows since.

[akfaka]

I am a long time Mac user, I kept my PC around because of my work as a web developer and I have to use PC to test MS IE garbage. When Parallels came out I was so happy because I can get rid of the Windows PC garbage and put Windows on my Mac. When Windows crap goes wrong, all I need to do is to delete the Windows VM and make a new one. I was never happy with Parallels, I switched to VMWare Fusion and it works so much better.

[Dan]

BrianM, on 05 March 2010 - 09:07 AM, said:

VirtualBox is great for standard apps... but the latest Parallels & VMWare have 3D support, which can allow some 3D design and even games to run without having to reboot if you have a bootcamp partition setup.

VirtualBox supports both 2D & 3D acceleration so games that rely on this technology should see some improvement. These features are enabled through the VirtualBox settings for the guest OS. I'm not a gamer but I've never had any applications fail to perform up to an acceptable level on VirtualBox, this includes many non-standard applications like real time, level 2 trading apps.

all the best
Dan

[People_Eater]

Parallels is already up to version 5? What the hell is up with that? It's only been around for a few years. Smells like artificial version inflation to me.

[condorguy]

There is a better solution!!! FREE!

Just take your old PC, throw it on the network in the basement and then go download RDC (Remote Desktop Connection) from Microsoft and you can bring up a window on your Mac that is running your PC. All your programs running on the real thing. No virtualization needed. You don't have to see the PC. You don't have to listen to it. But, you have all your old software and other stuff instantly accessible.