Parallels today announced that its Desktop for Mac virtualization software is available for purchase for $79.99, following the conclusion of a Beta program that generated more than 100,000 testers from 71 countries and has resulted in the current stable, high-performance version.
As a special incentive to new customers, the company will make the product available for $49.99 for 30 days following today’s announcement.
Parallels Desktop is the first solution for Intel processor-based Macs that enables users to run Windows XP – or any other operating system – simultaneously in isolated “virtual machines” directly on a Mac OS X desktop, giving them the ability to use Windows programs at the same time as their favorite Mac applications. This is different from Apple’s recently announced “Boot Camp” dual boot solution, in which users must work in either Windows XP or Mac OS X, and completely shut down one to access the other.
“Parallels Desktop enables Mac users to access Windows programs without giving up the functionality, power and usability of their Mac OS X desktops,” said Nick Dobrovolskiy, CEO of Parallels, in the press release. “We’ve broken through the barrier that previously kept Mac and Windows from effectively working together side-by-side, simultaneously, on one computer.”
Parallels near-native performance and rock-solid stability is driven by its hypervisor-powered virtualization engine, and full support for Intel Virtualization Technology, which is included in all new Mac Mini, iMac, and MacBook Pro computers.
“Using Intel’s Early Access Program, Parallels has innovatively used Intel Virtualization Technology on Intel dual-core processors, to empower the Apple community with the ability to drive productivity and flexibility via its powerful virtualization solution,” said Melissa Laird, general manager of Intel’s Global Developer Relations Division, in the release.
Important Features in Parallels Desktop for Mac:
• Run any version of Windows at the same time as Mac OS X at near-native speeds, without having to dual-boot or shut down their Mac desktop.
• Users can also run Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS/2, eComStation, or MS-DOS programs alongside Mac OS X applications.
• Safely share files and “cut and paste” data between Windows and Mac OS X programs.
• Expand a virtual machine to full-screen size on a primary display, or export and expand it on a secondary display.
• Reduce Windows 2000, 2003 and XP virtual machine hard drive size by 50 percent or more with Parallels Compressor technology. This tool, which retails for $179, is included free with each copy of Parallels Desktop for Mac.
In addition to its Mac product, the company offers Parallels Workstation for Windows and Linux powered machines. These versions are available for purchase at the same low price of $49.99 per license. The company is also developing server virtualization solutions. Parallels Server, due in mid-2006, is targeted at small- and medium-size businesses looking to maximize hardware resources and curb information technology (IT) costs. Parallels Enterprise Server is a high-end server virtualization solution designed to help large enterprises effectively virtualize and manage their significant server resources.
More info here.
Ina Fried reports for ZDNet, “A potential challenge for the start-up is that Apple may decide to offer, in addition to Boot Camp, a feature that acts more like Parallels in allowing Windows programs to run within the Mac OS. There has been speculation that Leopard might have such abilities. Parallels marketing manager Ben Rudolph said Parallels can’t spend its time worrying about what others might do. ‘All we do is virtualisation,’ he said. ‘Apple has got hundreds of different products. I believe we are going to have a faster, better solution regardless of what happens.'”
Full article here.
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I look for 10.5 to have similar, if not better features and capabilities.
Sweet. I’ve been using the beta releases and they’ve been getting consistently better.
Still no graphics card support? I’ll pass then…
Why wait for Leopard? Parallels delivers now and it rocks. I love it. I kept waiting for VMware and then Parallels showed up. Software Product of the year.
It’s too bad this product will be eclipsed by OS X, 10.5… a leopard WILL change its spots
Awesome.
This will allow me run my future biz on Macs. Has anyone had any experience running MS Access apps under Parallels?
My only problem with Parallels is that I have not been able to get printer sharing to work either via the network method or by the USB method. But it’s probably a Windows problem as it does not include my printer in its list of supported devices and I am unable to install the drivers successfully. It looks like a Catch 22 situation: Windows cannot complete the driver installation because it cannot detect the device and it cannot detect the device because it does not have the drivers.
I have had a lot of faith and excitement about Parallels. Just this week, I installed the RC2 release of it and tried installing a copy of Windows 95 for a switcher on his new MacBook 2 GHz. I know, very old and antiquated, but he only needs to run a single Windows program and it is non-graphical at that… and 95 is the only legal version I have a copy of.
So, I booted up the Parallels virtual machine, and there was a very MS-DOS looking prompt, but every time it starts up, it just informs me that “no startup disk is available, press Enter to continue” or words close to that. It has captured the CD from OS X, as it disappeared from the desktop as Parallels was reading it. I have all the IDE stuff set up as per the manual. Technically there is no reason it shouldn’t be working. I’ve tried inserting the CD after I boot Parallels, changing the boot order to CD-ROM, Hard Drive, Floppy (nonexistent), etc. No luck.
Has anyone tried this or have any ideas? Any help would be greatly appreciated, as my precious switcher friend is a little worried.
BriAnimations:
Graphics card support is near impossible using this technology, VMWare has been on the market for Linux/Windows for 5 years or more and doesn’t have it.
Parallels is awesome, don’t knock it for not doing something its not designed to do.
Unfortunatly
I think Apple will have to take charge of this new virtualization technology in order to chart it’s course more along with Apple’s overall plans.
Sure Parallels was able to act faster, but Apple has the ability to do a bit more to make this a seemless and integrated process under Mac OS X/EFI.
I personally would like the option to run Windows and Linux programs under Mac OS X without the hassle of launching or seeing a virtual machine of those OS’s. I also would like full performance if possible.
For others who need to see the “OS” itself, perhaps something like a fast “OS” switching would be more useful and for that a EFI based approach will be needed.
Oh, you don’t know about EFI and Trusted Computing?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Voyager:
The problem is that Windows 95 doesn’t have a bootble CDROM. You need to find a boot floppy image to install it. I’m sure if you go over to forums.parallels.com you will find help on how to do this.
What about device drivers and such? I tried looking up “Airport” for instance on their website. I got directions to their office from the airport.
Static Mesh: EFI and Trusted Computing are nothing to do with Virtualization. Stop throwing big words around you don’t understand.
Voyager,
I’ve had the same problems trying to boot up an old win98 disc.. I was pretty frustrated.. I would definitely at least have the ability to do this.
Actually Pog, EFI relates to my earlier question concerning device drivers. EFI would remove the need for OS specific device drivers, migrating that low level of IO down to the hardware. Instead of making calls to specific drivers, you make calls to EFI which controlls devices.
However this isn’t all in place right now, and I wonder how Parallels does with the Mac hardware.
This would be good for me only with graphics support but baby steps i suppose, not really sure what it would take to get that to work as im no expert, also – does it have any kind of shared clipboard copy and paste features? ? looking forward to seeing what apples alternative is.
As of today, Boot Camp is Yesterday’s News!
A couple of posters have suggested that similar technology will be part of 10.5/Leopard. All the rumors I’ve heard to date suggest Leopard will contain code that will <u>support</u> this technology, rather than replace it. This sort of functionality is several sorts of great for the platform, but supporting it could be one serious snake pit that Apple doesn’t need. Having it, though …
=> security blanket for switchers from Windows
=> supports ‘legacy’ (Windows) apps
=> flexibility normally associated with Linux
=> solid Apple hardware
This won’t sell a single Mac, by itself. It will go a long way towards removing any roadblocks to switching … no more “I would, but I need to run ?x?x? as part of my Job/Business/Hobby.”
I don’t see Leopard containing virtualization technology, and even if it does, Parallels has been working great for me. I’m gonna still with it either way.
For those who still need to use some older OS 9 applications, it would be really nice if Parallels would also support OS 9.
How long before MS “acquires” Parallels? Just Connectix the dots to figure that one out.
Embrace, extend, extinguish, enjoy global domination.
If you absolutely <u>must</u> run such ancient software, get a G5 PowerMac now and avoid the rush.
Seriously, what significant software has not made the switch from OS 9 (or earlier) to OS X native? OK, a number of games have yet to transition … old games. And some software companies have gotten out of the business or dropped product lines. I’ll miss Civ II when I upgrade to MacIntel, but not much.
leopard will definately contain virtualisation technology.
no doubts about.
it is a little unfortunate that this software will be obselete because they have obviously made a great product.
whos going to pay for it when it comes free with leopard though?
Does anyone else think that the (future) price of $80 is too much for this product? Considering that on top of this, you need to buy a full-blown Windows licence (since for some reason, an OEM licence isn’t included as an option.)
I remember buying Virtual PC with Windows before Microsoft owned it and the price was only about $30 more than a Windows OEM licence itself.
So now the virus writers are scratching their heads in earnest wondering how to jump the virtual fence.
Perhaps give something to the user to carry across him/herself.
DL Meyer, there are a number of smaller applications that have not transitioned to OS X from OS 9. In some cases, the developer is out of business. Several Hypercard aps are still used by some of us. In my case, there is a single outstanding Hypercard program to which I would like to maintain access. (There are also a couple of OS 9 only games with which I enjoyed passing some time.) Not much, I know. But worth it to me if Parallels offers OS 9 capability.