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Parallels Desktop 6 arrives with a Solid and Mature Release

September 9, 2010 By 4 Comments
Parallels Destop 6
Parallels Destop 6

The Benchmark in Virtualization Software for Mac

Over the past several weeks I have had the pleasure of testing and working with Parallels Desktop 6 for the mac. This new release not only improves performance, adds over 50 enhancements, but also offers critical new hardware support such as SATA drive emulation!

Some of the top features of this new release are:

35% Speed Improvement
80% Speed Improvement on 3D graphics
SATA Drive Support
5.1 Surround Sound Support

In my testing Parallels Desktop 6 continues to improve on an already stellar product through performance, enhanced PC Hardware support and ease of use. Parallels Desktop 6 not only sets the standards but with version 6 pushes the gap even further away from other virtualization solutions.

You can check out my new features screencast here and look for an review of 3D performance coming soon.

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Parallels Desktop 5 Sets a Very High Bar

February 17, 2010 By 1 Comment
Here is where you select a virtual machine to open.

The Virtualization industry for the Apple Macintosh has existed for almost as long as the Macintosh, with one of the first virtualization products (at least that I used) being hardware based on the Macintosh IIc back in 1987.   Warping forward to 2010 how times have changed for both software and hardware manufactures and “with Hell Freezing Over…” Apple made the move to the Intel Chipset.   In my humble opinion one of the best decisions Apple ever made!  Parallels Desktop 5In the Virtualization space today the players are Parallels Desktop 5, VMWare fusion 3, and Oracles’ Virtual Box, with the predominate lead going to Parallels.  What sets Parallels Desktop 5 apart from other Virtualization software really boils down to it’s mature and thorough feature set and just raw performance emulating Windows.  If your interested in a short comparison of Parallels and VMware I created a screencast here, late last year.

Parallels Desktop 5 is all about raw speed, performance and reliability.  Leveraging the release of Mac OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard, Parallels Desktop 5 now takes advantage of the 64bit OS, Intels VT-x2 Technologies,  and can utilize up to 8 CPU’s on the most powerful Mac the MacPro.   What does this mean?   In simple terms it means booting up in Windows XP in under one minute or even less with Windows 7.

Here is where you select a virtual machine to open.

Here is where you select a virtual machine to open.

I can now suspend a windows instance in less then 10 seconds, and when I need to go back into windows with just one click Windows is back and operational on my Mac in less then 10 seconds!  Truly amazing.

Performance is clearly carried through in both application performance as well as graphics including OpenGL 2.1 and DirectX 9 support.   What this has meant to me is that I can easily run applications like MS Word and Internet Explorer with performance that is better then most windows machines, and quickly test my website designs and video production for Windows compliance.   What has also much improved in Parallels Desktop 5 is the ability to play 3D games now in a virtualized environment, and get performance that makes casual gaming very acceptable.  For a more detailed look on gameplay within Parallels, I created a screencast late last year that you can find here.

What sets Parallels Desktop 5 apart is a well executed user interface and mature feature set for each Virtual Machine.   Parallels has created a very unobtrusive interface to launching a Virtual Machine instance, and accessing the hardware & settings of the environment.

Hardware and VM Settings Seamless Integrate with running Virtual Machine

Hardware and VM Settings Seamless Integrate with running Virtual Machine

The interface has been well thought out with the ability to configure every feature/function of the virtualization experience with a very comprehensive set of options.  While there are over 70 new features that are included in this release and certainly too many to cover here, the most important features to me are the performance improvements and the new Crystal Mode of operation.  To see Windows 7 literally melt away so that only you only see the Windows program running next to your mac programs is simply brilliant!

Notice that MS Word 2007 is running to the left of Apple Pages!

Notice that MS Word 2007 is running to the left of Apple Pages!

In summary Parallels Desktop 5 sets a very high bar and a new standard in Virtualization software.   The product offers an incredibly robust feature set, performance that is just amazing, and rock solid stability.   I personally use Parallels Desktop 5 on both a MacPro and MacBookPro daily, and my experience has just been stellar!   I for one will be interested to see how Parallels improves on this incredible release!

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