Parallels

[HodgeHi]

So how many of you mac owners now own this great little bit of software?

[HodgeHi]

So no one has purchased this software?

I thought it would be top of the list as it is an excellent VM app.
In conjunction with virtual desktops I have managed to get at least 5 OS's all running at the same time on 5 different desktops, and still no noticeable slow down on the host OS.

I had fedora core 5, Server 2003, Debian, XP, OS X Tiger.
My brother had 3 2003 Servers, two running oracle, and 2 XP clients

This is on a MBP with 2GB ram. I should imagine you could do something similar with an Intel Mac mini.

I have heard that the MS offering is slow.

Would make the testbench a lot smaller

[Ric_]

Would need an Intel Mac for that though

[GrumbleDook]

I just went straight for Boot Camp .. don't need anything more really.

[HodgeHi]

Well it looks as though the price of the intel mac mini (dual core) has come down from the £599 to £529. Not a massive cut but enough to tempt people into thinking.

If the trial version is still available i recommend a download as it works really well and as i say 5 OS all running at the same time on different desktops...excellent for testing configurations and server/XP deployments.

Apparently Vista will be supported in next version as well, and at the moment only $50

PS i'm not a rep for them

[dagza]

I'm seriously thinking about it. Can't face rebooting just to use one app. Was holding out to see if leopard would have a WINE thing in there but IIRC that isn't out for another year (if it includes it anyway) so I will prob take the plunge.

What is the performance of XP like under it?
What is the hardware support like?

TIA

Darren

[HodgeHi]

The speed is ALMOST as good as but obviously not natve. Parallels use a standard chipset (945?) and bridged networking. You can set this to be a dhcp range also.

Because the graphics are set as shared, you won't playing any hi-end games as such (doom 3 etc)

But where it does come into its own is having 3 xp clients and linux client (limited support for hardware here) all running with a server 2003 running all at the same time on top of OS X and the native OS still doesnt slow down to a complete stop. and the VMs still run smooth too. Add Virtual desktops into the mix and you have an diiferent OS on each desktop at just the press of a few keys.

I haven't had a chance to test the vm side of things thoroughly (plan to do that in the next few weeks) but when my brother used it for his Oracle DB (the one from his college) apparently it returned rows pretty fast and he was impressed.

[GrumbleDook]

At the request of a few teachers who will be working on Intel Macs next year I have had another look into Parallels ...

It is noticeably slower than bootcamp, but that is probably due to only giving it 512MB RAM instead of the 1.25GB that it can use under bootcamp.

I am also struggling with keymapping. I could do this with ease under bootcamp but it fails to accept remapped keys as valid in Parallels (erm ... where do I stick a 'DEL' key then?)

There is limited support at the moment (nice manuals, but no FAQs) and I can only find limited information out on the internet.

Once I have the keymapping sorted it will go onto the domain and I will start pushing out software.

[kingswood]

On a MacBok Pro Parallels is fantastic. Running Boot Camp on a Mac presents you with a different set of functionality than virtual computing allows, but they both have strengths and weaknesses. For me, virtual environments offer more than native use of the system. I need virtual servers for learning and testing on, so I use Parallels to run two 2003 Server machines and two clients. I can run Exchange Server, SMS, or even mix Linux and AD together and test how it would all fit...

I can't do that with a native XP install. Performance of Parallel is outstanding considering it doesn't have full access to the system (though it is the only VM solution out there that takes advantage of the new Intel Processors VT technology to my knowledge). Networking is fast, system access times are very responsive and even running an AD server it doesn't seem to balk at all- and that's running with 256MB RAM!

If you want native XP I would still stick with a laptop that has it on permanently. If you want the best of both in a convenient and flexible package, Parallels does that and then some. It's good.

Paul

[HodgeHi]

Yep, that more or less sums it up.

[GrumbleDook]

Woohoo ... finally got the keymapping problem sorted.

Dredging up from my memory an old problem I had in Virtual PC 3 (or was it 4 ...?) where you had to set a key combination (eg right shift + right apple) to get a specific key mapped in ... and then a similar problem where it would not take the first keymapping but you had to stick a second one in and it would accept the first (but not the second).

The combination of these has workedn, the bug has been reported and they say they have only had this on one other machine ... and they cannot duplicate. It may be some other software I have on here ... the first thought is the SMART software (which I still haven't had a chance to try out). I am ordering another machine for one of the ICT Teachers today and when it comes in I'll see if that is what makes the difference.