Rumor: New Version Coming?

S

sfwalter

Junior Member
Guys and Gals,

I saw this Infoworld article (http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisemac/archives/2006/08/vmware_for_mac.html). Although it talks about VMWare announcing a product on Monday, I was more interested in the Parallels info. The article states that Parallels with have a new version out before the end of year with ACPI Bios and USB 2.0 support.

Even if VMWare releases a workstation product for OS X, its a day late and a dollar short. Parallels has the backing of Apple (via advertisements) and it costs alot less than VMWare Workstation does. The last feature that Parallels needs to combat VMWare (and their marketing machine) is a VMWare virtual machine converter. Last time I asked about such feature someone from Parallels chimed in and said its on the plate.

Great news!
 
Edit:

Link is here:

http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisemac/archives/2006/08/vmware_for_mac.html

I for one think that competition is always good. "Day late, dollar short" doesn't mean a thing (look at the iPod) and if this has the features already implemented that Parallels users have been clamoring for (USB 2.0 support for one), you might see folks moving that way fast.

My prediction: there is going to be a Parallels update at some point next week to counter any of this hype and it will include support for USB 2.0 but not all devices.
 
Last edited:
It's not too late yet. If anyone else comes out with working USB 2.0 or even a more complete USB 1.1 solution than Parallels has then I'll swith immediately.

For my line of work, mobile development, Parallels just doesn't cut it at the moment.
 
sfwalter said:
Even if VMWare releases a workstation product for OS X, its a day late and a dollar short. Parallels has the backing of Apple (via advertisements) and it costs alot less than VMWare Workstation does.
Click to expand...

Parallels currently has the backing of Apple, as they are the only company with a VM product.

If VMware announce ( they have the announced the beta, http://vmware.rsc02.net/servlet/campaignrespondent?_ID_=vmwi.1756 ) WorkStation, despite the cost, I'll switch, due to the fact the experience I've had with Parallels, has not been a good one. I'd be more interested in PW, if Parallels fixed the issues they have with the current versions of PW and PD ( I have both ), before announcing new features.

Hmmm, new products announced Monday? Funny how that ties in with WWDC. I wonder if there'll be a version of Server to go alongside the rumoured introduction of Intel xServes.

Edit: Added beta info.
 
Last edited:
From the screenshot it looks more like VMware Player. And the funny thing about that - Parallels Desktop icon is on the dockbar on their official screenshot :)
 
@Andrew
Is there a new version on the horizon?
I think there are some issues (corrupted files with shared folder, usb etc.)
that should be addressed very soon in a maintenance release.

(Not to mentions some features like Parallels Tools in Linux OS.)

At least a timeframe would be nice to know a week, a month a year :-)
 
Andrew @ Parallels said:
From the screenshot it looks more like VMware Player. And the funny thing about that - Parallels Desktop icon is on the dockbar on their official screenshot :)
Click to expand...

I hadn't noticed that -- now THAT is funny!
 
The Parallel's icon might have been deliberately placed there to draw attention to the fact that this is not Parallels. You can see from the icon that Parallels is not loaded.

Interestingly, on the Windows desktop you can see the Logitech Quickcam icon. Are they using this with the internal iSight? Does this mean they have that working? Wild speculation I know but I just thought I'd point it out.
 
I'm sticking with Parallels. It always works for me. Whatever issues that others have (with usb support or other areas) I feel confident with the Parallels team will resolve them. They are active in the community (this forum), something you will never find with VMWare and its parent company EMC.

I'm willing to bet you that a new update of Parallels will be out around the same time as VMWare ships their beta.

VMWare's marketing screenshot made me laugh. How could a company have an icon of a competitor's product inside their marketing material?

Keep up the good work Parallels!
 
Well it's only a matter of hours now. I certainly hope that Parallels announces something this week to counter this hype. At least USB 2.0 would be great.

As far as "switching" though, I don't know if it's really worth it for most folks. If I weren't in IT I'd say that Parallels is an optimal solution for users that only need to access a few Windows programs. It took me a little under two days to load and start using XP, Ubuntu, OpenSuse and Madriva. Incredibly easy for the common user.

I see Parallels as the product for those people. I think VMWare might be going after another VM Market (IT/Development/etc) altogether. It's just too bad we didn't have two choices to begin with.
 
I'm not so sure Parallel's is the ultimate solution for even average users. Whilst Parallel's is undoubtedly a good product it does have several clear problems that any competitor can target (USB, use of real disk partition, performance).

Whilst I, and everyone else, could write lists all day I would really appreciate it if Parallels themselves came out and listed what we can expect from future versions. What functionality will be improved in the next version of Parallels?
 
I did notice that VMWare's site says their beta will be out later this year. That's a later timetable than people were expecting, and good news for Parallels.
 
sfwalter said:
I'm sticking with Parallels. It always works for me. Whatever issues that others have (with usb support or other areas) I feel confident with the Parallels team will resolve them. They are active in the community (this forum), something you will never find with VMWare and its parent company EMC.

I'm willing to bet you that a new update of Parallels will be out around the same time as VMWare ships their beta.

VMWare's marketing screenshot made me laugh. How could a company have an icon of a competitor's product inside their marketing material?

Keep up the good work Parallels!
Click to expand...
Parallels *used* to be very active here, it's hard to find a post from them these days, and many questions go unanswered.
 
I use Parallels daily for hours and hours at a time. While I cannot get it to work with a USB WIndows Mobile device, that's OK for now as almost everything I need can be done in the ARM based emulators with a backup from my real WM devices.

I would prefer to stick with Parallels because I have my entire environment in there, but I need two major things improved:

1) 2D speed
2) raw file access so I can make a partition and/or folder and keep my files in there. VS 2005 compiles are cpu wise fast on my Parallels, but slow on the disk.

If I can get WM debugging via USB and USB 2 - then I'll stay with Parallels.

However, if VMWare offers all of the above before Parallels does - I'll switch even at the beta simply because VMWare has a proven track record.

So I'm rooting for both, knowing that by the end of this year I'll go from 95% happy to 100% happy no matter which solution wins.
 
Well unfortunately my 4gb sandisk usb with u3 still doesn't work. But instead of hanging the system it BSODs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top