Why I need Parallels...

[nervus]

Hi

Just clarifying why I need Parallels. Since about 7 years I am using Macs. Two years ago I suffered a mild stroke leaving me with a weakness of the left side AND clumsiness with typing.
Now, my occupation is a medical one: consultant in neurology (oh, irony !!! ). I have to write patient reports, prepare lectures and so on.
To compensate for my mild handicap I decided to use programs for speech and handwriting recognition. However, those are not available for Macs in my language (Dutch).
So I bought an Intel MacMini and since then I am using that in combination with Parallels to run Dragon Naturally Speaking and MyScript Notes. ATM DNS is really becoming productive, which means I will purchase a MacBook Pro to replace my beloved Powerbook G4. Of course Parallels will be cloned to run on the MacBook.
In this way I can use my Macs most efficiently. The MacMini will be working as a mediacenter later on.

Now what is your reason for Parallels? Need? Greed? or Fun?

 

[Hugh Watkins]

My main interest is in FamilyHistory

and the most popular programme is Family Tree Maker

now in version 16
the competing Mac programs do not seem as good to me.

AOL 9 native is better than AOL 10 for Mac

MS Messenger in 8.1 beta likewise

MS IE 7 is a must have for webmasters to check sites

and will never be ported to the MAc

if an Excel user iwould also get the latest version for Windows


when Vista begins to mature say summer 2008 I will get that too
for networkig to

Hugh W

 

[daniel]

I voted "fun," since the only reason I need Parallels Desktop is to access devices that have no (or extremely limited) Mac OS X support:
- my Garmin GPS V receiver
- my RadioShack Pro-96 scanner
- my TiVo
- a VAG-COM, once I get that
- a Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx, once I get that

The first 3 work great in Parallels. I don't know whether the last two work in Parallels.

 

[pcraddock]

Mine is a need for work

There are three applications I need, otherwise I could do everything I need to do from the Mac. Avaya Softphone is only available for Windows, the design tools I use are not web-based yet and Visio. One very cool thing Parallels gives me is the ability to run a VPN in Windows and outside of the VPN in OS X. I am connected to two networks simultaneously just as if I was on two different computers (which is what I used to do).

 

[MarkHolbrook]

I have always preferred Unix as an OS compared to MSDOS, Win3.1, Win95, Win2000 and now WinXP.

In my humble opinion had MS had the forsight to take the product they owned the rights to Xenix and turn it into MSDOS and later Windows in its various forms then that product line would have been a true competitor to OS X.

The mac has always had superior software but has been lacking in industry support. You can download a free program to do just about anything for Windows. For OS X good luck... Many things just don't exist.

Also IBM opened the internals of the machine to the world with their published tech ref manuals (which I still have serveral of!) When they made that move hundreds upon thousands of people started to make cool, amazing interfaces for those machines. That legacy has carried on. You can buy a board to stick in a PC to make an omlette it seems.

The mac folks chose differently. They decided on a closed system I think out of greed. They wanted to license everything that could be connected to a mac. That greed I believe cost them many percentages of market share.

So for me personally I love the mac, I love OS X, but I need Windows because that is the environment I develop for. Biomedical devices that require Windows embedded XP to run.

It's a shame but its the way it is.

 

[Stevamundo]

I NEED Parallels because of my speakerphone modem.

In OS X there's no speakerphone modems and there's no software like HotFax 6.0 to dial on-screen.

The closest thing in OS X is Skype. Skype charges EVERY phone call you make. No 911 calls. Also if you can't use a headset like I can't there's an echo problem.

 

[dkp]

I need Parallels or VMWare because I need to run Windows, although only for just two applications, neither of which stand a chance in hell of being ported to OS X - Rhino CAD and Streets and Maps. And I prefer running Windows XP in a vm because that's all the ugly little wart deserves, and when it gets clobbered by adware and viruses or swallows it's registry, I'll delete it and run a copy of the backup. I'm sure not going to buy a computer just for that junk no matter how much I need the apps.

Restoring an XP backup vm from CD is faster than Ghost for recovering a total loss XP installation.

 

[johnoyler]

Web developer.

Maybe my boss got something right, when he chose to make us a Mac shop, but two browsers in particular are only available on Mac (Safari and iCab). Several others are also available (Firefox and Opera)... leaving only Konqueror (almost, but doesn't really work well) and IE6/7.

XP for the IE crap, and Slackware for Konqueror. Every modern rendering engine there is, on one machine.

Windows is no longer the best platform for web development, and in turn no longer best for anything even indirectly related to it. (I tend to work on backend stuff more than the site itself).

Still, it's pretty icky to see the stupid taskbar pop up when windows thinks it has something to tell me from the systray. (WTF do you mean my computer may be at risk, there is no windows computer!)

Thanks again Parallels guys!

 

[AlanH]

Here are my current reasons for using Parallels ...

- I need a Linux platform to compile C tools for a Linux server.

- As treasurer for an NFP, I have to run some accounting software that's only available in Windows.

- I use one or two specialist utilities in Windows that will be ported to OS X when hell freezes.

- For web site testing, I can have every web browser on the planet, on a single system.

[DELETE]
- .... and while the Windows VM is sitting idle on a spare core on my Map Pro, I can run another instance of Folding@Home.
[/DELETE]
- Now that I'm running the new SMP version of Folding@Home, it takes advantage of all my cores, so no need for a VM instance.