Tag:

Parallels

VMware Fusion 2 versus Parallels Desktop 4

by Philip Sellers December 1, 2008

Well, for as much as Parallels touted their Desktop 4 product is 50% faster, I have to admit that I’m initially impressed with Fusion’s speed. Its running extremely well on the same virutal machine that I imported from Parallels. The only nagging problem is the stuipid Norton Antivirus which apparently thinks I have changed systems – as well as Windows that had to be reactivated…

Also, for anyone taking part of the Parallels conversion to Fusion – if you’re running the Desktop 4.0 product, you’ll need to use VMware’s converter product to transfer your virtual machine. Fusion 2.0 cannot import the new format that Desktop 4.0 introduced.

Update: Norton Antivirus is working fine after reboot… So, no problems in moving between Parallels Desktop 4.0 and VMware Fusion 2.0…

December 1, 2008 0 comment

Virtualization

VMware Fusion for $10 for Parallel’s owners

by Philip Sellers December 1, 2008

written by Philip Sellers

Since I’ve blogged about my great problems with the Parallel’s Desktop 4.0 upgrade, I couldn’t not post this in case you’ve found yourself in the same boat. VMware Fusion is being offered at 50% off for Cyber Monday. (Just use the coupon code “CyberMondayDeal” on checkout). In addition, if you are a Parallels Desktop or Microsoft VirtualPC owner then you qualify for an additional $30 rebate as a competative upgrade.

So, given that I had such a hard time, I’ve decided I’ll buy – heck, $10 ain’t much – and give Fusion a real try, running it in production. So, I guess I should revise my virtualization history to say – I’m now VMware at home and work!

December 1, 2008 0 comment

Parallels Desktop 4.0 resolution – a.k.a. starting over

by Philip Sellers November 26, 2008

written by Philip Sellers

Well, after a week of issues with the Parallels Desktop 4.0 upgrade, I trashed my VM that I have lovingly used for the past year and I have started over with a fresh import from the Virutal PC VHD file I keep on hand. See, here is my history with Windows virtualization on the Mac: I purchased a copy of Microsoft Office Professional for the Mac which included Virtual PC. When I got my first Intel Mac, I became a Parallels Desktop Beta user, then purchased the real thing when it was released. I’ve upgraded (paid upgrade, mind you) with each release since.

November 26, 2008 0 comment

Virtualization

Parallels Desktop 4.0 – problems solved (maybe)

by Philip Sellers November 12, 2008

written by Philip Sellers

Well, it seems that my problem isn’t with the new version of Parallels Desktop, but with the VM image that I have upgraded, several times. A little background: my Windows XP is a licensed copy originally purchased with Virtual PC back in the PowerPC days of Mac. I imported this image into Parallels in version 2 and I have been using it in subsequent releases of the 3.0 product line without problems. It seems that the strange mouse and driver problems that I was expericing in the VM are releated to the source of my image – Virtual PC. I don’t know many specifics, but importing my VM using Parallel’s Transporter seems to have fixed the funkiness and solved my issues with drivers failing to install. I found this solution and a thread of other users expericing the same problems on the Parallels forums. Thanks to those users to contributed to this threat!

November 12, 2008 0 comment

Virtualization

Update at on Parallels 4.0

by Philip Sellers November 12, 2008

written by Philip Sellers

Well, my upgrade has not gone smoothly. My VM conversion failed in step 2. I’m left with a virtual machine that is not doing so well, and I ran out of time last night to work on it. So hopefully tonight, I can get some kinks worked out and get it back operational.

Word of advice – though I don’t know if this has an impact… Remove your snapshots before you upgrade or convert your VM to version 4.0… I think it would make the upgrade much easier…

November 12, 2008 2 comments

Virtualization

Parallels releases Desktop 4.0

by Philip Sellers November 11, 2008

written by Philip Sellers

I was an early adopter for the Intel Mac phenom. Parallels was much faster to market with their Mac virtualization product and so I have been a loyal user of Parallels Desktop since it was introduced. I have tried VMware Fusion and I’m fond of the product, but Apples to Apples (pun intended), the softwares seem very similar and I think the competition between the two companies is a wonderful thing for me, the consumer.

Today I purchased my upgrade to version 4.0 of Parallels Desktop and I’m still in process of installing and upgrading my virtual machine. I won’t say the install is painful – its very elegent and Mac like, but it has taken a couple hours now and I’m not finished yet… The install was fast enough and I do immediately like the interface changes that I see presented before me. I think Parallels has done a good job of making this new version very Mac-like.

The conversion process from the version 3.0 to 4.0 virtual machine has been a little painful – only in the sense of anticipation in running the VM. This release is touted as 50% faster than the prior version and I’ve often bragged that Parallels runs Windows XP better than any Windows only machine I’ve ever encountered. So to say this version is 50% faster, I’ve simply gotta see to believe.

Given that this conversion process is time consuming (my VM is approximately 25G), Parallels has smartly given me a “Take this time to learn about our newest features” overview of their changes. One, I immediately noticed was the ability to virtualize Mac OS X on Mac OS X. This is going to be a fun one to play with… now I just have to get into the Snow Leopard BETA program…

Other new features include Modality (a new view – not really sure what it actually is), improved Coherence, Safe Mode (a read-only mode for VMs – something VMware has had for a long time in their products), an iPhone interface to start and stop and otherwise control VMs (neat, but what’s it really worth?), and improved graphics support. Coherence was one of the biggest new features I loved about this product. VMware Fusion followed suit with their Unity feature and I think the ability to run Windows windows beside Mac apps seamlessly is great. As far as improvements, the system tray from Windows has been integrated into the Mac OS X menu bar, which is good. I think this will allow users to hide the nasty start bar when in Coherence.

I try and keep tabs on both products, but I have to confess – I’m a VMware user at work, Parallels at home.

November 11, 2008 2 comments

Virtualization

What I’m passionate about: virtualization

by Philip Sellers August 5, 2008

written by Philip Sellers

Since June of 2006, I’ve worked for HTC (Horry Telephone Cooperative), which by the way is the national’s largest telephone cooperative. Its offered me some great experiences and training opportunities. One of those is exposure to virtualization technologies. And this one comes with a story.

When I started at HTC, my wife was pregnant and due in November. In September, we were scheduling a VMware class for the new version of VMware that was being released. VMware was already in our datacenter and operational, but the new version offered a huge leap forward – something we wanted to take advantage of. So the class was scheduled starting on November 1 and moving forward – no big deal – until the doctor’s said we’d have our baby on October 30 (much longer story there). So I began VMware classes two days after my daughter was born, but I haven’t regretted it. Even as distracted as I was during class, I met a really amazing product suite.

August 5, 2008 0 comment