Parallels today announced that its Desktop for Mac virtualization software is available for purchase for $79.99, following the conclusion of a Beta program that generated more than 100,000 testers from 71 countries…
They’re offering a special for $49.99 for the 30 days following the announcement.
Parallels Desktop is the first solution for Intel processor-based Macs that enables users to run Windows XP – or any other operating system – simultaneously in isolated “virtual machines” directly on a Mac OS X desktop, giving them the ability to use Windows programs at the same time as their favorite Mac applications. This is different from Apple’s recently announced “Boot Camp” dual boot solution, in which users are forced to work in either Windows XP or Mac OS X, and must completely shut down one to access the other.
You can:
— Run any version of Windows at the same time as Mac OS X at near-native speeds, without having to dual-boot or shut down their Mac desktop.
— Users can also run Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS/2, eComStation, or MS-DOS programs alongside Mac OS X applications.
— Safely share files and “cut and paste” data between Windows and Mac OS X programs.
— Expand a virtual machine to full-screen size on a primary display, or export and expand it on a secondary display.
They say you can go back to Windows 3.1 with this thing. My father-in-law will go looking for his DOS 6.2 discs.
An innovative product and it doesn’t come from M$. I think this is the product most of us, who must use both platforms, have been waiting for.
I’ve used it since beta 1. It really is an impressive piece of software. You can even use slingbox software with it. 😉
We write web based development software, so having access to all of the various platforms is priceless…. especially at 85% to 90% of the speed of the MacBook Pro.
To bad no one will pick up were MOL left off. The Mac on Linux program is a great piece of software that lets you run your installed Mac OS from inside Linux. No emulation here, both OS’s are running at the same time.
http://www.maconlinux.org/
This is one great piece of software. All they need to do now is get USB support fully stable, and let me run Ubuntu – at the moment the install freezes at 15%.
This week has just been full of good news! I knew it was just a matter of time. Now, as soon as Apple releases the new desktop Macs, I will be able to remove the myriad of computers in my computer room and run one machine for everything.
Now I just hope the new desktop Macs will have dual CPUs with dual cores so that I can have a processor assigned to each OS. So, does anybody know when the new Macs will be out?
This is really good software, only thing it lacks is being able to do games.
Neal Saferstein
Virtualization (of ANY operation systems), is the key to the end of viruses and spam, and most importantly spyware.
ALL web surfing and email should be done in virtual machines that can easily get replaced when corrupted, and regardless NEVER affect the other virtual machines.
The technology is SO THERE, and it needs to be done. End of Story.
I installed it on my MacBook Pro shortly after I heard about the public beta.
It works *very* well – now, admittedly, I installed it more as a curiosity – but Windows 2k is quite useable and as responsive as I remember Windows on my last PC – (2003).
I’ll still bet Windows ME can make it crash