Hello new friends,
I'm Joe. When I was younger, I had both Parallels and VMware just a few years ago. Was not happy with either. :-(
However, things may change. Today, I am an engineering student at a New England university, and a small business owner.
In checking the Parallels website, some things are clear. The student version of Parallels is a purposefully crippled lesser product, NOT a true educational discount. Shame! That's one strike.
To be clear, this is asking politely to best evaluate a product for possible subscription and a lifetime stream of recurring payments. One must choose carefully.
The website is purposefully designed to prevent any pre-purchase interaction, such as this, from a non-customer or possible future customer. This does give a negative initial impression. So one must ask in the "forums." Hum.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One thing I MUST have is "smart card" or "CAC-card" reader capability for muh company.
So a polite question in comparison of the full-priced "Pro" versus the "business" editions, which are offered for the very same price: Do BOTH versions, "pro" and "business" have smart/CAC-card capability, please? They both cost $100/year. It's ONE question. ['yes,' 'no,' details welcome]
Next/last question: If I were to buy "business" and install on two Macs, what is the price per year?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really do not wish to go through all the hassle and drama of a purchase, only to be disappointed again and then further drudgery of the refund and cancellation process, which many companies deliberately make as painful and unpleasant as possible.
To be super-clear, the evaluation of any product and/or company is often somewhat based upon their respective support experience and, well, just ease of communication and perceived honesty.
If a polite yet relevant question is already quite difficult to ask and then given a legalistic or evasive non-response, then strike two.
One hopes for a one round trip experience that is fully responsive to the actual question asked with a friendly, even kind answer.
Skeptically, Joe
I'm Joe. When I was younger, I had both Parallels and VMware just a few years ago. Was not happy with either. :-(
However, things may change. Today, I am an engineering student at a New England university, and a small business owner.
In checking the Parallels website, some things are clear. The student version of Parallels is a purposefully crippled lesser product, NOT a true educational discount. Shame! That's one strike.
To be clear, this is asking politely to best evaluate a product for possible subscription and a lifetime stream of recurring payments. One must choose carefully.
The website is purposefully designed to prevent any pre-purchase interaction, such as this, from a non-customer or possible future customer. This does give a negative initial impression. So one must ask in the "forums." Hum.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One thing I MUST have is "smart card" or "CAC-card" reader capability for muh company.
So a polite question in comparison of the full-priced "Pro" versus the "business" editions, which are offered for the very same price: Do BOTH versions, "pro" and "business" have smart/CAC-card capability, please? They both cost $100/year. It's ONE question. ['yes,' 'no,' details welcome]
Next/last question: If I were to buy "business" and install on two Macs, what is the price per year?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really do not wish to go through all the hassle and drama of a purchase, only to be disappointed again and then further drudgery of the refund and cancellation process, which many companies deliberately make as painful and unpleasant as possible.
To be super-clear, the evaluation of any product and/or company is often somewhat based upon their respective support experience and, well, just ease of communication and perceived honesty.
If a polite yet relevant question is already quite difficult to ask and then given a legalistic or evasive non-response, then strike two.
One hopes for a one round trip experience that is fully responsive to the actual question asked with a friendly, even kind answer.
Skeptically, Joe