Title says it all. Do we have any visibility of when a new release of Parallels will be out. We had lots of beta's and now everything seems to have stopped. Robin
More specifically, "my vote" is: do not wait a long time to provide any new capabilities/features. It would be nice to provide them as downloadable upgrades. And I'm sure many of us would be happy to continue to beta test releases even though the initial product has now been released. My personal pet problems are 1) Being able to boot from the same partitiion as the Boot Camp'd partition, 2) modern DirectX support and 3) better "keyboard support." We don't need it, but I know folks would love 4) better USB support and 5) better networking issues. I'd love to see these released one at a time rather than some lengthy period where they are altogether. I'm also sure there is some comprimise compensation model that can be produced on Parallels end, assuming that is even an issue, since the more things resolved, the more sales especially corporate ones.
Before Parallels start adding new features, I would suggest they make the current release less problematic. I posted a message on this forum, regarding a Solaris issue, was joined by another user with the same issue. We both sent Parallels support emails, and have received nothing. Not even an acknowledgement. I have seen a rare post from a Parallels person, who claims that there is an update "soon", and that they are working on the next major version, too.
. The current word is a minor release by the end of August and a major release by the end of the year. .
End of August for a minor release? Hmmmm, I hope that it fixes a lot of the issues being reported here ( and coincides with a PW release ). End of the year for a major release? If I were Parallels, I would push for an major release before then. If VMware announce WorkStation for OSX as they're rumoured to at WMworld, that could hurt Parallels. Especially as there's been talk of the major releases being chargable. Don't get me wrong, I would rather support Parallels, but after having bought a copy of PW and PD, I've been more than a little disappointed by the neglect both products and support have seen since the GA release of PD. I will be quite wary of purchasing another update. Having used the free VMware server on Win32, that is now my preferred vm app until I compare it with the minor release of PW. Even with the cost of WorkStation, I think that it will still get some serious consideration.
I am also disapointed by the fact that Parllels team seems to have disapeared. Perhaps maybe they are busy with other projects, but I was hoping the same type of support and updates would be available after the GA release of Parllels. Regardless, I still use Parallels everyday and don't have too many problems with it but it would be nice to know that Parallels does plan on releasing something.
Release Time Constant releases of a complicated product can increase bugs dramatically. Personally, I think Parallels is doing a nice job if they gave a bug-fix/performance fix update in August. I'd much rather have bug fixes right now than more features (although I do like the feature ideas that others have mentioned).
