Upgrade to 6? Are you joking?

J

James Wallis

Bit poster
I earn my living from my computer. After wasting hours and hours of my precious time getting the upgrade from 4 to 5 to work I can not afford the same fiasco again. Reading the forums now I see that users are having the SAME problems when they upgrade to 6. (ie. Problems installing TOOLS) Until you people get this whole upgrade process to work PROPERLY EVERY TIME (!) there is no way I'd jeopardize my system by installing any upgrades. People whose livelihood doesn't depend on their computers can no doubt afford the hours of frustration and downtime needed to get this buggy software to work...... I can not. I wonder if your competitors' product inflicts this much trouble on users.......
 
Of course, I'll upgrade a couple of copies to v6, but I'll do it on a cloned drive, and I'll probably wait a month or so for a stable installer. My VM's have been working well for so long that I've grown spoiled. I will be interested to see more information about the Shadow copies making it easier to use Time Machine to back up a VM. Right now, my VM's are excluded from Time Machine, and I manually back them up every month or so. The programs I use in Windows have been told to save their files to the shared folder which is not excluded from Time Machine, so they are backed up across the network, hourly.
 
I think the early-bird discount they give is a way to compensate the early adopters for testing their stuff out for them. :-)
 
I know this isn't directly useful advice for your situation, but I never do upgrade installs between a major version of anything. I created a brand new VM/windows install for Parallels 6 and I haven't had a single problem. I don't upgrade-install windows service packs, I slipstream (or wait for an MS updated version). And even with Apple having a friendlier track record, I only do clean or archive-installs with OSX.

I also make my living on a computer, and while I'm proficient enough to sort out problems that would result in an upgrade, my experience has taught me that upgrading is far more complicated - and will ultimately take up much more time - than a fresh install and reregistration. Do I want to waste time trying to sort out an infinite number of problems stemming from an incompatible upgrade? Or, while it's a minor time inconvenience, reinstalling everything and starting on a clean slate.

One way or another, if you want to work with Windows, you have to deal with Windows the way Windows works.
 
Agreed.

They do not really support the version you purchase, and upgrade. They just drop another paid version off on you. I would at least like to see a 5.1 update

What is the marketing difference between 64 bit last time and true 64 bit this time? was the first 64 bit untrue?
 
A 64 bit virtual machine engine can reserve more than 4 GB of RAM for the virtual machine.

The old method required mapping parts of the RAM to a file.

I don't know what benefits you get if your VM is only set to use something like 1 GB of RAM.
 
Where is the value?

The upgrade costs $49 and gets you 3 month internet security coverage. (BTW, it is unclear as to whether this is total or cumulative with earlier coverage.)

Full price version costs $79 and gets you 1 year coverage. "$175 in Bonus Software! Protect your computer from virus and spyware threats with Parallels Internet Security by Kaspersky" (from Parallels Desktop spec sheet).

So how much will someone who is upgrading have to pay to receive full Internet Security coverage?

Seems like a bad deal to me.

An upgrade should provide the same features as those of a full price product. The user has already invested in the upkeep and use of the current program. And perhaps...loyalty.
 
@jessv: You know, that's a really good point. I guess that has been bugging me but I never really realized it. They do send out some number of patch releases but I keep waiting for a point release to address some shortcoming (usually something that has regressed compared to an earlier version) and it never comes. Then I see a new version and I get excited until I find out that A) I need to pay for it all over again, B) It does not address the issue(s) I keep writing to them about and C) It introduces more problems and headaches than it fixes.

Then there is a flurry of patches to fix what should not have been broken in the first place and then NOTHING. The product stagnates until they want another fifty bucks from us to test a new set of bugs for them.

NO THANKS!
 
Upgrade Disaster

I wish I'd read this before following the link in a email I received today offering free upgrade to Parallels 6 because I bought 5 less than a month ago.

I downloaded the file, and installed--in the process removing Parallels 5. Now however my Parallels 5 activation # does not work (I registered the product and kept the number, as the email advised.) Apparently I need a Parallels 6 key, which I was not given.

I called the 888 customer support number and spoke to someone in India who gave me a ticket number. He said that he could not help me, but that someone from Marketing could, and would call me back soon. I waited a couple hours, but they have not called. Now when I call the 888 number I get an automatic message "68 dash 4. The number you are trying to call is invalid or blocked from your area code."

Meanwhile I received an email with a link supposedly to a place where I could activate my account. However when I follow the link, I cannot find any way to activate my account. I find myself inside what seems to be their call center ticket system.

Next I tried to contact the support Chat service. I went from #21 to #6 in line and then stuck there for over an hour. Now when I try to join the queue again, the form tells me "You must enter your Ticket Number or Support Code for chat authorization" even though I tried entering first one number, then the other.

Is there an award somewhere for the most messed-up support system on the planet? I'd like to put in a nomination.
--Jim
 
Profit margins must be huge

Pursuant to things discussed in this thread, the profit margins must be huge. They charge for every release, save money on little or no testing and limited support.

Am I unfairly bashing them? Yes I'm bashing. But not unfairly. I just keep reading about poor people ripping their hair out with these upgrades.

Are there any consumer grade alternatives to Parallels? Is VMware viable? Or more for corporate?
 
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