I wanted to try the new Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex now that is out, it was frustrating that I couldn't install Parallels Tools, and thus I couldn't use the full resolution (1680x1050) of the screen or even play with Compiz.
This left me asking to myself, why do I have Parallels? I don't want to create a partition for the latest Ubuntu just to try it, I don't feel like burning a CD just to run the LiveCD option. If Parallels worked the way it works for Windows it would have been the perfect solution to give the latest Ubuntu a quick, unobtrusive, spin while having the full depth of a HD install (as opposed to LiveCD).
Instead, it left me with second thoughts about its usefulness beyond Windows. Left me thinking about the fact that VMWare has a bigger virtual appliances repository and probably can come up with drivers for the latest Linux distros faster.
It also left me thinking that the way Parallels Tools for Linux are packaged lefts much to be desired if you compare it to how nVidia packs its drivers for Linux. Maybe Parallels Tools for the various OSs should have its own repository which would be updated much more frequently than the release cycles for Parallels Desktop and Workstation.
Parallels Tools needs to be rethought in a much more modular and granular way, both from the distribution and install angles, it's not acceptable that because the Display drivers fail to install all the other drivers fail too. It's also not acceptable that it's always impossible to install Parallels Tools on new released Linux distros because these are exactly the most likely candidates for a virtual machine (using virtualization programs as testbeds for new releases).
These are just suggestions, I haven't given much thought about this, but, up to a point I thought that having Parallels, besides virtualizing Windows would let me play with other OSs too, taking full advantage of them, the fact of the matter is that it isn't quite like so.
What I'm slowly realising is that Parallels doesn't really care much beyond virtualizing Windows (they probably don't see virtualizing other OSes as specially lucrative), but that is not good enough for me (VMWare on the other hand has a long tradition on these other OSes).
Software is frustrating.
Last edited by a moderator: Nov 1, 2008