Anyone use Parallels?

DudeBoyz

I have an iMac 24" with a Core2Duo and OS X. I just found out about this application called Parallels that lets you run and load Windows in a virtual "machine" from right inside OS X.

Virtual pc, virtual machine and multiple operating system solutions by Parallels, Inc.

I'm wondering if anyone else has heard of / used this software, and if so, if you could comment on it.

I'd like to learn some more about it.

Thanks

DudeBoyz

Anyone using any Virtual Machine software at all?

I'm messing with the latest RC and got Suse 10.2 running fine, Windows XP Pro running fine and Mandriva 2006 running ok except with some display issues.

Just wondering if others are messing with VM's at all, and if so, what apps?

Thanks

fobis

For now, Parallels is pretty much all the Mac users got for VM stuff.
VMWare Fusion is supposed to come out some time soon (the beta has already been opened a while ago).
Parallels is indisputably the fastest VM software on OS X for now.
It'll be really cool, though, if they can ever utilize the Intel VX-t virtualizion technology (or whatever it's called) to make it all faster, and it'd be even cooler is if they ever get video acceleration implemented like in VMWare Fusion (which is still very experimental).

DudeBoyz

I wonder if Microsoft is going to completely drop all Virtual PC stuff for the Mac. Version 2004 works fine with Power PC stuff, but not with Intel based Macs.

I just installed Ubuntu in a virtual machine and I found out it uses GNOME! I hate Gnome, so I found KUBUNTU and am downloading that instead.

It's fun to tinker. Suse 10.2 is at 1600x1000 resolution on my 24" imac, which is awesome cause the screen is 1920x1200, and I want it to fit in a window on the desktop, and at 1000 pixels, it just fits into that 1200 pixel space, what with the mac title bars and the Parallels title bars, etc.

I'm glad the Parallels folks give 30 days to tinker around with the RC, cause I am going to need that much time to get it figured out.

The mapping of the CD/DVD drive is not working well in the Linux VM's. I have to figure out the shared files stuff and test the cutting and pasting of clipboard items from one VM to another. There do seem to be display issues too. I hope it all gets cleared up between now and shipping time.

Yeah, it's cool to be able to run Windows XP in a VM, but OS X handles interacting with Windows printers and files and such already. The key for me is Linux VM's, cause I can load like 5 distros in 5 different VM's and tinker around all day long without messing up any of my WIndows XP machines. Nice...

Mousey

isn't it possible to use Windows and Linux with parallels?
i've seen it before on some dudes photo stream thing on flickr, ignore if you wish

fobis

IIRC, Microsoft has not released any plans for a new version of their Virtual PC for Mac. They may have actually dropped that alltogether.

DudeBoyz

On my OS X system, I do have a Windows XP Pro virtual machine installed and I now have multiple Linux VM's installed. So I can run all 3 OS's on the same machine. It is working well.

Right now I'm trying to get KNOPPIX to install to the virtual hard drive instead of running off the disk image.

There is no automatic option for that. I've had to do some Google searching. Right now I'm trying the install procedure I found here:

Knoppix Installer - Knoppix Documentation Wiki

It uses the following command run from the console: sudo knoppix-installer


I had to do the partitioning when prompted - 2 times - one for the install space and one for the swap space. Once I did that properly (and not before) a modified menu came up and one of the options was to start the install.

It's sitting there at about 78% right now - has been for a while - but since the virtual hard drive and CD lights are still blinking, I'm assuming it's still installing ok.

I'm finding that of all the distros so far, SUSE 10.2 is working the best. UBUNTU and KUBUNTU are both chopped-down, over-simplified n00b versions, it would seem, and not worthy of most users time if they care about being able to actually use and configure their system.

Mandrake is second - it has some video glitches that prevent me from being able to really explore it hardcore.

When all is said and done, I may end up deleting all the Linux virtual machines except for Suse. It has some more powerful configuration apps and seems not to be cut-down like Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Just seems to have the right kind of setup for a moderate user who wants to take control of the distro.

I'm not sure what other distros to try at this stage. Is Xandros still being made?

DudeBoyz

This kinda blows. I guess people without Intel macs are going to be screwed.