On the previous build, there was some weird bug that caused a total freeze of the Mini. There is a long, long thread about it here somewhere... sometime in July as I remember. Anyway, they came out with a special build 4562 July 25 2007 (which is what my About screen says.) This build works so I'm not ready to run out and try the new one.
I too am saddened with how the company has progressed as of recent. I thought they would get 'better' with a new player coming into their market, but I don't see it. Bottom line I think they are a tiny company that is just overwhelmed by their success coupled with a very complex product and not having a large enough staff to deal with it all.
I can deal with that in an open source environment. But when I pay real money, I need service, not silence... which is what we got last time.
I don't know if VMWare is any better. Right now Parallels works and I don't have need for many whistles and bells. If it was slam-dunk easy for VMWare to use the Parallels VM I'd try it, but I hear their converter is a hit or miss thing.
When OS X 10.5 comes out it will have (production) Bootcamp so maybe that will work well. Re-booting is not that big a deal.
Al