Parallels Coherence is not an application; it does not belong in the dock.

Parallels in Window or Full Screen mode is an application.

In Coherence mode, however, the Parallels interface is only used to change preferences, or to stop/pause itself. From that description, Coherence is a service -- an outstanding and useful service -- simply used to run Windows applications. It is no longer a desktop application.

In Coherence mode, Parallels no more belongs in the dock than Apache or Samba.

The goal of Coherence is to make people forget that Parallels is actually running a VM. Moving the Parallels icon to the menu bar would further that illusion better than any real feature you may be working on to enhance Coherence functionality. The dock icon is a bit of an eyesore on a gorgeous product. Silly? Perhaps. But you know how much HCI matters to us Mac users.

At the very least, give us the option in preferences. The dock icon partially betrays the fact that you have developed the best interface of any virtual machine platform on the market.

 

And what if you wish to do something that has nothing at all to do with your coherence mode Windows VM like start a second VM, or edit other VM's, or even create a new VM? You seem to be pretty wound up over a small world view of this tool.

 

Apparently you've missed one of the best features of the Coherence mode: in the preferences, choose to hide the Windows task bar when in coherence mode. After that, you won't get the annoying and ugly Windows task bar displayed on the screen. But clicking on the Parallels icon in the Dock will display the Windows Start Menu allowing to easily launch any Windows application without having to display the Windows task bar again. So yes, the Parallels icon does belong to the dock even when in coherence mode.

 

At least make it an option, then. And I've found the auto-hide feature doesn't always work as expected. When I click on the icon, the Start Menu sometimes does not show up. But that's neither here nor there.

 

Make it part of the menu bar icon. Or make it an option to keep the dock icon if you so choose. Or launch the Parallels application interface from the Applications folder.

 

I for one will be sorely disappointed if Parallels spends .5 sec on an issue like this when there are major stability, performance and functionality issues outstanding.

How about not taking 60-70% of cpu when doing NOTHING in coherence mode. They need to lay off the eye candy and fix the underlying issues first.

 

My dual-core 2.0 GHZ with 512 megs of RAM was at 70% CPU running Safari, let alone Parallels. Using normal apps on Tiger requires 1 GB of RAM to run happily... don't let anyone tell you differently. You need 1.5 - 2 GB of RAM to expect to be able to run Parallels. That is not a Parallels issue if you don't have enough RAM.

All of my performance issues went away when I upgraded to 2 GB of RAM. Any VM is slow as molasses -- you're running 2 OSes at once. My Dell with VMWare has the same issues of high CPU utilization; it's just a fact of life with virtual machines.

I've had no stability issues with Parallels... sorry to see you've been having trouble. Parallels is as stable as can be for me (much better than VMWare for Windows), and everything is very quick. I don't know your system config, but if you have 1 GB or less, you won't have much luck performance-wise; there's nothing Parallels can ever do to change that.

 

I'm truly surprised at the antagonism towards adding an OPTION to the package. I'm not the only one who feels this way:

http://tinyurl.com/2cofq9

For goodness' sake, it's not necessary to basically tell me I'm dumb. I'm simply saying I don't like the dock icon in coherence mode; it doesn't make sense to me, and I should be able to turn it off. How in the world can you be against adding an option, especially one as simple as this? I even said it should be an option in my OP, not an across-the-board change.

I'm a software developer -- I write code for a living. This kind of change is as easy as they come.

Man, some people... it's as if I insulted someone's mother or something.

 

If that is the truth, and you're only running Safari on a 512M machine, your machine is defective. Go to any Mac store and check. For the record, I have a 2 Gig machine. I am presently running the following:
- Firefox - (7 tabs)
- Eclipse
- Oracle SQL Developer
- Entourage
- Excel (Mac Office 2k4)
- Adium
- Several Terminals

And my CPU usage at idle is 6-8%.

If I start up build 1940 or 1970 (or even 1848.2 - yes I've been using that long), CPU just for parallels with XP idle is 13-17% (plus the 6-8% for my other apps). If I start 3186, and enable coherence CPU for Parallels only is 60-70%. That is either a bug, or some of the most piss poor code ever written. I spend all day developing code -- it's not easy -- but it's not THAT hard either. Generally, the hardest part is for the dev to convince their manager that the investment of several weeks time is worth it.

I'm happy to hear parallels is stable for you as well. In fact it's stable for me too, but only because I have chosen not to use the things that I know destabilize it. Namely USB and Bootcamp. In addition, I have chosen not to use coherence or USB due to the resources consumed. (Coincidentally, these features happen to be the primary things they market.) IMO, all 3 of these things need to be addressed before they continue down eye candy land. If coherence takes 60-70% cpu, can you imagine what a similar implementation of 3D graphics support will entail?? It won't be pretty and it will only serve to further bog down OSX and destabilize parallels. They got some bad code in their that needs fixing. (I hate to say it, but USB almost seems to be polling.) It happens, that's part of SW dev and I'm OK with that. What is really annoying is their failure to acknowledge it and their failure to indicate they intend to fix it.

 

2 posts, from the same guy in 2 different forums.... Not a lot of others worrying about it then.. His posts were also made before the inception of coherence mode.

 

I guess an option could be provided to hide the icon but I'm definitely not going to be hiding it. I love the fact that I can click on it and have the Start Menu appear- so its kinda like a start button on the dock that I use all the time to open My Docs folder or launch applications.

I dont see why anyone would not want that, but if you dont then that is your personal choice and you certainly have every right to voice your opinion.

-a

 

What you ask for does not solve a problem, it solves a preference. My view is I don't accept for a moment that coherence is an object as you have suggested. It is a mode of operation, not an entity, so it cannot have physical attributes such as visualizations. I don't think you are dumb but I do think the idea is idiotic.