Parallels on the Pomcast

Want to see coherence in action and learn more about what's coming in the Parallels Destkop for Mac update? Check out the interview I did at MacWorld with StuFFmc and the Pomcast crew:



For those of you unfamiliar with Pomcast, its a multilingual video/audio podcast that covers all things Mac. A great resource for those of you (and me) who are slightly geeky. You can get Pomcast at the main Pomcast page, or via iTunes.



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Vista is here. So what does it mean for virtualization?

Unless you’ve been in hiding, you probably know that Microsoft finally unveiled the consumer versions of Windows Vista today. It’s undeniably cool, and without question will be the OS that most of the world will be running in the months and years ahead. If you buy a new Windows machine, chances are that it will be pre-loaded with Vista. There are 4 increasingly powerful consumer flavors of Vista – Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate – each of which are licensed for unlimited and unrestricted use on a PC.

If you’re moving to a new machine, getting up and running on Vista will be relatively straight forward (NOTE: I’m writing a post for later this week on how to use Parallels Transporter to ease the migration from XP to Vista, so stay tuned). But what if you want to run Vista in a virtual environment, via a product like Parallels Workstation 2.2 or Parallels Desktop for Mac? That’s where things can get sticky.

Microsoft has released a new EULA (End User License Agreement) that states that only certain versions of Vista – Business and Ultimate (and Enterprise for corporate customers) are eligible to be run in a virtual machine. The EULA says that Home Basic and Home Premium CANNOT be run in a virtual machine.

Here's the tecnical legalese from the EULAs:
For Vista Home Basic and Home Premium Editions:
“USE WITH VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGIES. You may not use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system.”

For Vista Enterprise and Ultimate Editions:
“USE WITH VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGIES. You may use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system on the licensed device. If you do so, you may not play or access content or use applications protected by any Microsoft digital, information or enterprise rights management technology or other Microsoft rights management services or use BitLocker. We advise against playing or accessing content or using applications protected by other digital, information or enterprise rights management technology or other rights management services or using full volume disk drive encryption.”

In short, this means that if you’re a user and you want to run Vista virtually, you MUST buy the highest end versions of Vista, or you’ll be in violation of the Microsoft EULA.

Here are the price points for each version:

• Home Basic $199
• Home Premium $239
• Business $299
• Ultimate $399

To me, this strategy could hold back users who embrace cutting-edge technologies like virtualization, which means they won’t upgrade to Vista. This means that Microsoft has effectively lost an upgrade customer (in the case of Windows PCs) or an entirely new customer (for Mac and Linux users).

Microsoft has a great opportunity to open their operating system to an entire market of Mac users who would never normally use Windows, and to ease the way for enterprises around the globe to upgrade to Vista.

Want to weigh in on the debate? Leave a comment here, and make sure to contact Microsoft and let them know what you think! You can email them, or post a note on their Vista community forum.

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Parallels & SWsoft: one-stop-shopping for everything virtualization

As you may or may not have seen, David Kirkpatrick of Fortune Magazine wrote an article today that reveals that Parallels is owned by SWsoft, a global company that offers Virtuozzo, its own OS-level virtualization solution, and a range of automation products.

You're probably asking "So, why make this announcement now?" Here's why:

You all know that 2006 has been a very big year for Parallels. Even though we’re a young company, we’ve achieved a lot, especially in the Macintosh space with our Parallels Desktop for Mac product, and SWsoft’s guidance and resources have been extremely valuable as we built Parallels from tiny newcomer to industry leader. However, there’s a lot more to Parallels than our Desktop forMac product, and as we grow our business and move towards new versions of our desktop products, and beyond the desktop into the server virtualization space, we felt that it is now appropriate to let everyone know how the business is set up, and what that means for our customers.

This announcement makes a lot of sense for us, and for you. With the combined strengths of SWsoft and Parallels out in the open, we’ve got your virtualization needs covered top to bottom. In short, you can now hit us as a “one-stop shop” to outfit your organization with industry-leading hardware and OS-level virtualization that fits your server and desktop setup, regardless of what combination of Mac, Windows and Linux you may be running.

If you’re a Parallels customer, breathe easy - working with us won’t change. You can still contact us directly for support, sales, and partnerships, you’ll still be able to buy Parallels branded products in the Apple Store and through other great retailers like Staples, Office Depot, CompUSA, and Amazon.com, and you’ll still be able to track us down at a show or conference in our bright orange shirts!

When you get right down to it, all this means is that we’ve got more ways to help you get the most out of your machines. I'm pretty psyched about it, and I'm sure that you will be too.

• Read David Kirkpatrick's article in Fortune here.

• Learn more about SWsoft:
• SWsoft home page
• Virtuozzo, SWsoft’s OS-level server virtualization product
• The Official Virtuozzo Blog, written by my buddy Ilya Baimetov
• Read about OS-level virtualization, and how it differs from - but still compliments - the virtual machine technology used in Parallels products
  

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Ask Ben Anything - Linux Resolution, Missing Vista Activation Keys, Coherence, 3D support update

If Linux is used as a "Guest" OS on a Windows XP desktop, are there video resolution limitations for the Linux installation?

- Charles M.

Right now, yes. However, you'll be able to map Linux guest OSes to your host PC's resolution when we introduce a full Parallels Tools set for Linux. This is on track for the next major upgrade version, so its coming soon.


I'm trying to install Vista in Parallels on my Mac, but I can't find my Windows activation key. Can I still install it?

- David B.

Yes, you can. But -- IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER AHEAD -- you must activate your copy of Vista with a fully licensed, genuine activation key within 30 days or it will stop working. My advice would be to hold off installing until you find your key, so you don't get started and then have important data trapped in your VM if you can't find your activation key.


Coherence is slick stuff. Which guests support it?

- Harold S.

Coherence works great in Windows Vista, XP, 2000 and 2003. Make sure you update Parallels Tools in each guest OS where you'd like to use Coherence!


Any update on your forthcoming support of OpenGL and DirectX 3D graphics?

- Erik P

We're still on track to add this in the next major upgrade version. it just takes time. :)

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Live demo of Coherence

You've probably been hearing a lot about Coherence, our groundbreaking new technology that lets Mac users run Windows apps without seeing Windows. But have you seen it in action?

Check out Coherence, and Parallels Desktop's other great new featuers, in this TV clip from Gear Live Media:



If the video cuts off early (right around where I am explaing why you can't run OS X in a virtual machine) try reloading the video from scratch.
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CES & MacWorld: The Week in Review

I made it back in one piece from my crazy 9-day hitch on the road to CES and MacWorld. It would be far too long of a post to cover everything that happened in the past week, so I'll hit the highlights:

Monday, January 8th - CES
In short, CES is total insanity. Its basically 150,000 tech geeks like me causing havok in Las Vegas, surrounded by gadgets and gizmos galore (and alliteration, of course). Parallels didn't have a booth at the show, but I did walk the floor to do some interviews and meet with a number of partners. We alsohit ShowStoppers on Monday night to pick up our hardware for PC World's "Innovation of the Year" award. Pretty cool to network with the other winners, which included the Microsoft Office 2007 development team, and the crew who put together the Nintendo Wii.

The show floor at CES

Tuesday, January 9th - CES & MacWorld
Spent the morning hanging out with my friends at PC World at the annual media brekfast. Hopped a plane to San Francisco around mid-day and hit Moscone in the afternoon, and was greeted with this at our booth:


Traffic was this intense for the entire show! It was absolutely amazing to see the response to Parallels overall, but it was especially cool to see how blown away people were with the Parallels Desktop for Mac Update that we were demoing. The look on people's faces when we showed off Coherence, Transporter, USB 2.0 and Drag & Drop made the chaos completely worth it.

Wednesday, January 10th - MacWorld
This was the biggest day of the show for us. First, we dropped the Update Release Candidate for Parallels Desktop for Mac. Lots of cool new stuff in this one:

• Better USB 2.0 support. Faster support for a broader range of devices, including Palm PDAs and most webcams.

• Improved Drag and Drop. Parallels Desktop now shares the entire Mac file structure between OS X and Windows! Here's what I mean: if you drag a Word file directly from OS X to Word for Windows, the program will automatically open with the file ready to edit. Make a modification and click "save", and the updated file will save right back to its original location on your Mac. Very cool.

Get the Update RC, and see what all the ruckus is about.

Only a few hours after releasing the Update RC, it was named "Best in Show" for MacWorld 2007! An amazing honor to be sure...thanks to everyone who came to see the demo and to see us get our award!

On stage demoing Coherence with MacWorld Magazine's Jim Darymple and Jason Snell at the "Best in Show" awards ceremony

Our "Best in Show" flag, in an Ars Technica photo (more on that later). Can you tell that I'm just a bit happy?

To wrap up the day, I had the opportunity to co-present with David Pogue, the technology writer for the New York Times. David re-defines energetic, and it was an honor to play his "straight man" during the presentation, and to show off Parallels Desktop in front of a really enthusiastic crowd.

Working the crowd with David Pogue of the New York Times.
Without a doubt the most entertaining demo I did all week!

Thursday, January 11th - MacWorld
More crazy booth traffic. People were literally stacked 10 deep to catch a glimpse of coherence and talk to a Parallels staffer about what's going on with our technology. Was misrepresented by an Ars Technica writer who decided that he wanted to create a fight between us and VMware when really, there isn't anything between us but mutual respect and some good-natured competition. Later, did a follow-up interview with Jacqui Cheng, also of Ars Technica, who cleared everything up and let me share the real story. Had a good laugh with the VMware team about the whole thing, and got back to work.

Friday, January 12th - MacWorld
The final day of the conference was just as busy for Parallels as the rest of the show. Along with John Welch of YourMacLife.com, and resident Mac gurus Mike Sebastian and David Pooser, I hosted the "Virtualization Techniques and Management" technical session for the MacIT conference. Another packed house! Thanks to Mike, Dave, John and all of the techies who showed up to ask technical questions, request new features, and join the dialogue about the best way to run Windows on a Mac.

Mike, Dave and John, in the speaker's lounge just before our session

After the show's close on Friday afternoon, I stumbled wearily to my flight at SFO and passed out the second I hit the seat. I woke up when we touched down at 6:01 ET Saturday morning and the guy in the middle seat informed me that it was time to get off the plane.

Thanks to everyone who came by the booth, or pulled me aside on the show floor to ask a question, give us some contructive criticism, or just voice their support for what we're doing!

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Party with Parallels at MacWorld!

I have a few extra tickets to the cocktail party that we'll be hosting on Wednesday night from 630-930 pm at Annabelle's (68 4th St, between Market and Mission), so I thought I'd open them up to my loyal readers.

There are 20 tickets available on a first come, first serve basis. Just come by the booth, tell a Parallels staffer that Ben sent you, and you'll get a ticket. See you at MacWorld!

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Ask Ben Anything - Using VPC images, finding us at MacWorld, backspace/delete in Windows

I have a licensed copy of Windows XP that came as part of my copy of
VirtualPC. Is there any way to use it with Parallels Desktop?

- Michael A.

In the next update (currently in Beta and available here), we have included a new tool called Parallels Transporter that enables users to migrate VMware Workstation and Microsoft Virtual PC images (and an entire real PC) to Parallels Desktop. The whole conversion process for an image only takes a few minutes.


I'm heading to MacWorld next week and want to come by the booth. I see in the banner that you're at booth #1643. Moscone's huge...where exactly are you?

- Brandon W.

Our booth is in the south hall, right behind the main Apple booth. We'll all be in bright orange Parallels polo shirts, so we'll be hard to miss. See you there!


Been playing with the new version. Its pretty sweet. Found one small glitch. If you highlight a file for deletion and then hit the Delete key, it pops you up to the next level of the file structure and does not delete the file. If you highlight the file, then right click and select delete, the file is deleted fine.

- Jim L.

What you're running into isn't a glitch. It's actually just a difference in the way Windows and Mac view Backspace and Delete. Here's what I mean:

• A Windows keyboard has 2 different keys – Backspace and Delete.
  
• On a Mac, the Delete key works like a Windows Backspace because of its location.
  
• Backspace in Windows forces the “go back” operation as described above.

In order to use a true "delete" in Windows, just press Fn+Delete.

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