Is Parallels Dead?

Should I just give up on Parallels and move over to Fusion? From the lack of updates and the lack of fixes for a variety of bugs . . . it appears that Parallels has breathed its last gasp?

If so, is there any chance I can obtain a refund, due to early termination of support and violation of implied warranty of merchantability?

I really am surprised nothing new has came out since the release of Leopard. Their are developer releases for the purpose of developing on new platforms . . they're not just pretty toys to play with. Perhaps a lot has changed in the two years since I quit being a Software Developer.

Thanks for the update.

 

I have a feeling Parallels is busy trying to get things ready for the server environment, and because of this they are not focusing properly. This is a common problem in smaller teams, prepping for the next product at the detriment of existing product lines.

Really though, Leopard hasn't been out that long, and the level of emulation makes even a small change a serious headache (remember what happened with OS X.4.10?). Also, remember how long it to M$ to come out with a new version when the G5 framework came out? I bet they had early notice (granted, M$ is notorious for long development cycles).

I use Tiger still and really don't find Parallels buggy; I, and many others I know, run a single XP VM and it works like a charm, absolutely no hitches for several months now!

 

When was the last beta released--3 weeks ago? I think you need to be more patient.

 

I'm also still on Tiger and Parallels is relatively stable IF and ONLY IF you only run one VM at a time. However, I find that if I have more than one VM open it gets very, very buggy -- unusably buggy. Windows XP will sometimes suddenly disappear from the screen completely, taking Parallels down with it, in a fraction of a second. Just, poof!, everything gone, including everything you were working on. I have also found that Vista VMs are instable if more than one VM is open -- if I have XP and Vista open (I have plenty of memory for this on a Mac Pro) the Vista VM will regularly experience blue screens while just sitting there doing nothing, with no programs open. This never happens when Visa is open on its own, it's definitely related to having multiple VMs running at the same time.

The question is, is Fusion any better? Quite a few switchers posting on the Fusion forums seem to think so, but Fusion does also have its own issues. I'm testing the Fusion demo on my MacBook Pro at the moment and so far it seems pretty good. Its processor load seems to be a little bit lower than Parallels' and it makes a very stable first impression. Attention to detail is definitely better than with Parallels -- for example the main window with the list of available VMs is always visible, which is very nice, and VMWare doesn't add stupid and annoying bells and whistles like the insane file associations between OSX and Windows that I hate so much on Parallels.

 

Hi,

Thank you for your messages. Parallels is not dead. We are working hard to make Parallels Desktop 3.x update more stable and fully compatible with Leopard. Thank you for your patience.

Best regards,
Alexander

 

alexg,

How long away are we from the the next release? Are we days, weeks, or months away? Just trying to get a ballpark estimate here.

I'm still on Tiger, but I want to ugprade to Leopard so badly. I've had the DVD sitting on my desk since the day it was released, but I don't want to risk having a busted Parallels setup. So I've been waiting for the official release.

-Mark

 

Build 5160 isn't bad. I have 10.5 now. All works fine "and" stable. No crashes, just fine. So, what you are waiting for? Install 10.5 and good is...

 

Patience, young padawan.

I'm guessing the 10.5.1 certified update for Parallels will come out sometime after the Thanksgiving weekend and before the Xmas break.

Like you, I have had Leopard sitting on my desk since 10/26. In fact, I bought the first copy at my local Apple store on release night.

Look at all the posts by frustrated people who rushed to install the product. Do you want to be frustrated too?

Software is complicated, especially an application like Parallels. They've already stated they were not given the final Leopard build prior to its release. An application like Parallels probably requires at least a month of testing to cover all their test cases.

I'm waiting until an official announcement is made by the Parallels team that they have certified it against 10.5.1. And then I'm waiting 1 week to see how it goes. If no major problems are reported, only then will I upgrade to Leopard.

 

Thank you for the positive responses.
I am honestly afraid of Fusion. I used it once and my exam software was locked out - even when I booted into windows via Bootcamp. I do not have this problem with Parallels.

Unfortunately, I need to run my VM via bootcamp (it was much more stable as a virtual drive) due to my law schools requirement that I use their ExamSoft software which does not run under a VM [meh!]. Not to mention the school requires that I run Vista [stupid,stupid,stupid].

However, running Vista in bootcamp all the time utterly defeats the purpose of having a Mac. I much prefer OS X for most of my daily activities.

. . Yet, as an ex-Software Developer, I am frustrated with the slow development turn around times . . . especially when there were development releases.

But, maybe that is just me. Anyway, I'll be patient. If I see nothing by January though . . . we'll see what happens.

Thank folks.

 

So, the odds are that you've had your hands on the final version of Leopard for longer than Parallels have thanks to Apple playing "I've got a secret nyah-nyah" up to the last minute. This is partially Apple's fault for launching Leopard as if it was the latest Harry Potter book rather than a complex operating system that required the cooperation of dozens of developers.

 

Update on Parallels crashes in Tiger: It now looks as though I have found the reason for the frequent crashes. If you have hard disks that can spin down while Parallels is running then Windows and Parallels will almost always crash when they try to access the hard drive that has spun down. I have now installed a cron job on my Mac Pro to make sure that no hard drives ever spin down and the crashes appear to have stopped. You also have to make sure that Windows in a VM can never try to sleep, hibernate or activate a screen saver -- this is particularly important with Vista VMs.

Instructions for setting up the cron job can be found here (use the instructions for Cronnix in the fourth comment, it's by far the easiest solution).

 

It's funny how on some machines a given program causes no problems, while on others dealing with the problems is like playing (and losing) "Whack-a-Mole." And this isn't just with Parallels; it happens with lots of programs. I suspect it is just due to the wide variety of configurations we have, all running slightly different sets of processes on slightly different hardware configurations.

I don't run Vista, just XP, but I have found that XP under Parallels is solid on my machine--sleeps just fine and the screensavers work, although they cause Parallels' resource usage to really go up. Also, even when the OS sleeps, Parallels still uses lots of cpu cycles. External hard disks that spin down cause problems with lots of applications. However, I have never had a problem with Parallels relative to either the internal or external hard disk spinning down. As a rule, I suspend my XP VM when not actively using it in order to reduce Parallels' overhead on my processor; I typically just quit Parallels with the machine suspended and rarely reboot XP. I am running 10.4.10 on a MacBook Pro and Parallels 3 (5160).