Is Parallels solid enough to replace VPC TODAY?

R

Robster

Hunter
Hi

Sorry for such a basic question but I am running VPC which is slow and I am considering buying a new Intel MacBook Pro ONLY because of Parallels.

Is the current release ready for Prime time use or should I delay my purchase decision for a few weeks?

Robin
 
depends on what you're trying to do with it. I have seen a lot in the forums about OBS problems and such...but i don't have a usb printer or gps device similar to others that are experiencing problems. Please let us know what you do with VPC so people can respond and let you know how much luck they had with said application.
For example i use Dreamweaver, Office, and Autocad with out problems...but you may do other things.


Hope this helps,
-Levi
 
Robster said:
Is the current release ready for Prime time use or should I delay my purchase decision for a few weeks?
Click to expand...
You're not supposed to use beta software in a production environment, but I've been using Parallels for about two months now to run SAPgui at work. It hasn't crashed a single time.
 
It's working reasonably well, if you do not need USB support.

But VPC had a lot of issues with THAT, too.

Be prepared in that it is not possible to convert VPC image files to Parallels. It might be possible to use something like Acronis TrueImage, but I have not tried that.
 
hansderycke said:
You're not supposed to use beta software in a production environment, but I've been using Parallels for about two months now to run SAPgui at work. It hasn't crashed a single time.
Click to expand...

You're not supposed to use beta software in a production environment, but I've been using Parallels since about beta 3 (around third week of april) for doing professional Windows development using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. All this on a MacBook Pro 15" 2.0 GHz with 2 GB RAM and 100 GB 7200 RPM HD. Except for the Windows development work, I do everything else in Mac OS X. I only had some keyboard mapping issues (using an european accented keyboard, not the stock US qwerty one).

For my needs this is indeed a screamer configuration, like Steve J. said in January. ;-)
 
Go ahead. Parallels works great, and even if you had any problems with it, your worst case scenario would be that you would need to use bootcamp to boot into windows instead.

And the speed benefits gained both in the Mac OS and in Windows far outweigh the minimal time the reboot would take.
 
Robster said:
Sorry for such a basic question but I am running VPC which is slow and I am considering buying a new Intel MacBook Pro ONLY because of Parallels.
Click to expand...
I thought that VPC didn't run on any IntelMac (yet).

I used to run VPC on a G5 iMac and there it performed reasonable. It feels a bit sluggish though.

Is the current release ready for Prime time use or should I delay my purchase decision for a few weeks?
Click to expand...
In general it runs fine however there are devices (like printers) that do not always work.
 
I too am using Parallels for development in WinXP. Not a single problem that I can't trace to something else and yes it is MUCH MUCH faster than VPC.
 
I've been using Parallels with no problems other than minor things (system delays while resuming a suspended VM) for a couple of months now. I consider it a vastly better solution -- even with the few remaining issues -- than VPC ever was.
 
Sheppy said:
I've been using Parallels with no problems other than minor things (system delays while resuming a suspended VM) for a couple of months now. I consider it a vastly better solution -- even with the few remaining issues -- than VPC ever was.
Click to expand...

On the subject of "system delays while resuming". Do you mean the effect whereby it looks like the total system is frozen?

If so I have the same problem but also have that with another app (Rapid Weaver) when very large files (> 150 Mb) are opened or closed.Also I had that same problem with my G5 iMac.

Till now no one has been able to solve this or pinpoint to a solution.
 
Yes, that's the problem I'm referring to.

Doesn't happen to me when using RapidWeaver though, although my largest RW file is about 25 MB, I think.
 
Sheppy said:
Yes, that's the problem I'm referring to.
Doesn't happen to me when using RapidWeaver though, although my largest RW file is about 25 MB, I think.
Click to expand...
It doesn't start until files get way over 100Mb.
 
I now use my MBP full time thanks to Parallels. However, I don't need to worry about USB, etc. - in fact I haven't even tried that yet. BTW, Remote Desktop *does* definitely work on the intel macs. That's what I was using on my MBP before I started using Parallels instead.
 
Well I got my MacBook Pro today and have parallels installed and running.

Performance compared to VPC is superb.

The one thing causing me greif is printing.

VPC's printer driver that enabled me to print to whichever printer I had selected on the Mac side was a godsend and I only wish it was in Parallels.........

Otherwise seems a brilliant product.

Robin
 
VPC's printer driver that enabled me to print to whichever printer I had selected on the Mac side was a godsend and I only wish it was in Parallels........
Click to expand...
I had same problem. Solved it as follows:
1, Download the Bonjour.exe from Apple's site.
2. Run it in XP/Parallels.
3. Do not select the suggested driver but select the "Generic/postscript" driver.

For me, it resulted in a perfect working printer (Epson ACL 1100).
 
Well, I am running Windoze XP SP2 on a 2Gb Macbook and I am using Cisco VPN, MS Office to my company's Exchange server. Oracle Discoverer 10g web form and the Discoverer app, ODBC to Excel refreshing 13Mb+ spreadsheets. :O I can connect to my company's network public folders and print to my company's network printers. I can copy my stuff to a USB flash drive to give to my colleagues. I have a bluetooth mouse that work well. I don't need anything else! :)

It hasn't crashed once. Its fast, refreshes my spreadsheets faster than any of my Dell laptops. Though I suspect memory fragmentation is a problem since Outlook runs slower as time goes by.

I use it in Full Screen mode and I have Adium (UniBin) as IM. Growl pops up my IM messages when I am working in Full Screen. When I get bored of work (which comes often) I minimize Windoze and get onto the Mac-side.

It's the bee's knees! :) Thanks Parallels!!
 
Tried using Acronis TrueImage Workstation 9.1 with Universal Restore to move the VPC image over to Parallels. It worked, but I needed to change the registry to work around a stop 0x0000007B error when XP SP2 rebooted, by following the steps in "More Information" in "http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082/". Because of the hardware changes, XP needs reactivation.

haralds said:
It's working reasonably well, if you do not need USB support.

But VPC had a lot of issues with THAT, too.

Be prepared in that it is not possible to convert VPC image files to Parallels. It might be possible to use something like Acronis TrueImage, but I have not tried that.
Click to expand...
 
efoo said:
Tried using Acronis TrueImage Workstation 9.1 with Universal Restore to move the VPC image over to Parallels. It worked, but I needed to change the registry to work around a stop 0x0000007B error when XP SP2 rebooted, by following the steps in "More Information" in "http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082/". Because of the hardware changes, XP needs reactivation.
Click to expand...

Hi

Can you tell me how easy this really was please?

I don't want to pay for Trueimage for the one time I will use it, if at the end of it I cannot get past the STOP error and being a long time Mac user the registry in Windows is something I have never had to touch before.

It looks DAMN COMPLICATED...... :o(
 
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