PD5 want to upgrade to Mountain Lion--what are options?

I don't need to use Windows very much any more so I'm still using Parallels 5 w Snow Leopard. Actually PD6 came out not long after I bought my MacBookPro & got Parallels 5. It seems that other software offers a longer free upgrade if a new version comes up within a certain time after purchase.

I have Windows 7 set up in Bootcamp & then am using Bootcamp as a VM in Parallels. I don't have any plans to upgrade Windows.

But now I would kind of like to upgrade to Mountain Lion, but Parallels 5 I see is not compatible. It looks like Parallels is up to Version 8.

Don't really want to spend much $ for something I rarely use & which it seems has fairly frequent version changes.

I guess I could just use Bootcamp, although that is a nuisance.

If I do decide to go ahead to update to Mountain Lion & still want to use Parallels, what are my options?

Could I upgrade directly from 5 to 8?

 

You can upgrade directly to PD8 with no worries. Although you will have to buy a full version as an upgrade key option is available only for PD6 and PD7 users.

 

If I upgrade to Mountain Lion & lose PD5, using Bootcamp as VM should b able 2 use?

Not very thrilled by the options offered. Not all that long after I originally purchased PD5, there was upgrade to PD6 for a fee. & it was within the time period that I would have expected to be offered a free upgrade, but not w PD5. I had purchase MS Outlook at the same time & it had a FREE upgrade w a longer FREE window.

I'm rarely even using Parallels now since my need for using Windows has mostly gone away. I'd like to still have Parallels, but now it is keeping me from upgrading my Mac OS which is keeping me from using some of the Mac features like most of iCloud.

Since I'm not using it much, don't really want to have to pay for an upgrade. & as others have said not happy that the software has such a short life w being compatible & then we get dinged for upgrade fees.

So w that in mind I think I will explore other options. I don't want to pay to upgrade to something I don't even use that often & which it seems will soon be obsolete anyway so I would then need to upgrade again.

So I may explore VMware Fusion or just using Bootcamp if needed, although that is a nuisance.

So I guess if I do upgrade to Mountain Lion, I would lose the usefulness of PD5, but since I have it set up w Bootcamp as a virtual machine I should be able to just use Bootcamp to access the few things I have or want to access in Windows?

Snow Leopard, PD5 on MacBookPro-2010
iPhone 4S w iOS6

 

Boot Camp will work under ML OS either with or without Parallels Installed on your machine

 

Back up your bootcamp partition before upgrading to ML from SL, some users lost access to their Windows partitions, because lack of sync between GPT and MBR.

 

good advice - the bootcamp even might be still available for a native boot, but not be accessible through Parallels