Most requested Parallels features

Didn't have to wait long...

It's fixed!! Bluetooth is now available to PDM via a little piece of software called SerialClent, available here ==> http://eudyptes.com/SerialClient.php

A little kludgy but works and now I'm happily playing with my bluetooth GPS receiver, using Street Atlas and Streets & Trips both in Windows XP on my MacBook running PDM.

Fantastic. Never would have dreamed just 1 yr ago of such a thing. Well done.

 

Why bother running virtualization software? If all you want to run is Windows programs and you're satisfied with Windows, then use bootcamp and run windows all the time.

The differentiator is Mac OS X. If you value its useability, protection from viruses, worms, spyware, its performance, etc., etc. then you'd want to run a native Mac OS X program and not a Windows program.

The Windows VM running within Parallels is just as suceptible to viruses etc. as any other Windows machine and must be similarly safeguarded.

 

Not interested

I'm almost exclusively all Mac all the time and not intrerested in running Windows and wouldn't be bothering with this virtualization stuff AT ALL if just one decent mapping program was available on the Mac at a price competitive with the others. RouteBuddy may be getting close and might even be superior once they get a little farther along. But I can buy Streets & Trips for ~$20 and, with the help of PDM and an existing XP license (key cost component), have a pretty decent solution for much less total cost.

My only point was that Mac developers are a bit less protected than they were without PDM on the scene. Now they are small fish in a bigger pond. The availability of PDM limits the premuim a niche Mac product can maintain over Windows-only competitors. I fear that limiting the premium might limit the attractiveness to developers and reduce the investment in making great Mac software. Why should DeLorme invest in a Mac version of Street Atlas if, in their minds at least, Windows version + PDM = Mac version?

 

My vote is for a Mac OS X (or any host OS) utility that temporarily disables new USB-device detection i OS X.
This to make sure that devices connected are available to the virtual machine and not "captured" by the host OS.

Please please please.

This and 3D support are the only reasons I have for dual booting. The USB thing is a serious pain in the behind.

 

If you will indeed use one for ANY host OS, there is a good utility for Ubuntu Linux that disables the new OS X USB detection on your machine, it's called the "Installer". Just erase Mac OS X from your hard drive and use it.

 

This belongs to OS X, not Parallels.

 

Snapshot Support

I realize snapshot support only got a little over 2% of the votes in the poll, but wouldn't it represent low-hanging fruit? I mean, I'm essentially doing it every time I suspend my virtual machine already, it just needs to be made a little more flexible.

The other thing I'd like to see is a little more control over how the mouse focus behaves when working on mac os x as the host OS. I have two monitors and tend to fullscreen windows or ubuntu on the second monitor, and I'd like to be able to just slide the mouse between the two monitors without need for a key combo to escape the guest OS. Clicking at one location within the guest OS window and finding the mouse suddenly at the old position in the guest OS screen can be disorienting as well. If the parallels simply tracked the mouse as soon as it entered the window area (in this case the second monitor) I would find it much more intuitive and easier to use.

These are my two requests, from an otherwise happy customer!

Cheers
Mike

 

Graphics Support

I would love to see my ATI 1600X graphics card supported. This would put the program over the top in my book.

 

PXE Boot in BIOS

We build and test software on Linux and being able to build from our PXE server would make things very easy. Any chance that could be done?

Thanks,

Steve

Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, More...

 

That is the way it already works. I use two monitors, guest Windows can be full screen or windowed on the second screen and i can move the mouse seamlessly between them.

You have to install Parallels tools to get the mouse support. And the mouse support only works that way for Windows. On Linux you have to do the key combo to release the mouse from Linux.

 

Okay, so since upgrading to the new version (build 1940) the mouse now behaves exactly as I wanted it to. This is fantastic.

Now, about those snapshots...

 

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Snapshots are just not needed. Setup a cron job to copy the .pvs file as often as you like.
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USB support and 3d support need each other for gaming purposes I think. Although Im not I gammer I would start with USB 2.0 support but 3d support would be nice due to the fact that I will be doing more programing here soon that is more complex so I need the 3d support. College stuff. Oh yea way smoother with 1940 build congrats

 

I agree 100%.

 

Um, I don't want to reload my snapshots at specified times, I want to reload a snapshot *now*. I'm not looking to backup a virtual machine every week, I'm looking to trash a virtual machine with virii and similar and restore it 10 minutes later at the click of a button without having to do a copy/move, reload manouver each time.

Of course, if you say I don't need it, then well, obviously I must not have a need for it...

 

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That's correct, you don't need it. Well, only if you agree that it's no more difficult to say copy from there to here, than it is to say restore snapshot, this snapshot. If you believe the plain copy is more difficult or time consuming than doing restore snapshot, this snapshot, then yes you do need it.

The cron job is to automate the backup copy. One can of course do a copy from here to there at any time.

With the copy method, nothing has to be reinstalled or reconfigured. It's just the copy that has to be done.
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The problem with using cron to create backups is that doing a copy while the VM is running will cause the guest to assume a crash if you try to start from it, and worse, may create an inconsistent copy if parts of the file are modified that have been copied and other parts are modified that have not yet been copied. This makes the copy not a snapshot.

The way snapshots work, is that changes are written to a different file, and reads are two stage: First look to see if the block has been modified, and if so, read from the snapshot file, and if not, read from the main image. this slows down both reads and writes, and may be a high price to pay for those who don't need it, so it has to be an option, and may not be needed by enough people to be worth implementing. You trade the time and space to make a copy (and the space need not stay on line) against the execution time increase and on line space for the modified blocks.

I'd have to guess that USB, 3D, and direct partition access, as well as multi core emulation will be higher priority, and rightly so IMNSHO.

 

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I would just set up the cron job to happen at a time the VM was not running.

Agree with your priority assessment, just adding multi nic.
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Need Exact Audio Copy (EAC) support

I voted for CD/DVD burning in the hope that this would also allow EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to work. EAC has no counterpart on the Mac side. It creates bit-perfect audio files from CDs, and it's one of only three reasons I bought Parallels. I run my really good home stereo from a hard drive-based audio source, and I need clean rips from my CDs.

So, please give Windows XP under Parallels the ability to work directly with CD/DVD drives.

 

I know people have gotten EAC to work with WINE under Linux. Maybe it will work with Darwine under OSX?