Parallels Desktop Leopard Update hits RC

We just dropped the Release Candidate (RC) of our free Leopard Update. This means that we're very, very close to a final release!

As with all Parallels updates, this one will be 100% free to our entire 3.0 user base, and you should receive it automatically via auto-update when it goes live.

The build number is 5580, and you can get it here.

_____________________________
Become a friend of Parallels on MySpace!
Join us at www.myspace.com/parallelsinc!

And the award for fastest response to a blog post goes to...

... Joseph Bucci!

Joe wrote back with his story in record time, which I figured warranted an immediate follow-up post . Here's what he's up to:

I work for a communications company in Ellenton, FL. We service and install business telephone systems. We love Macs but the manufacturers that make the equipment we sell only write software for Windows. This held us up from using Macs in the office, until we found Parallels.

Now I can use my Mac for everything I need to do.

I use OS X 10.5.1 for Safari or FireFox, Mail/RSS, and iCal, as well as all my media applications. I run Microsoft Windows XP in Parallels (5570) Coherence mode to run the apps I need to do business including System Administration and Programming apps, our MS Access based Work Order app and our "Keystrip" printing app. Parallels even handles my USB to Serial adapter that I use to connect to my systems without any trouble.

I also have Vista Ultimate installed in Boot Camp but I rarely bother to go through the trouble of running it when Parallels is so easy and runs so well.

Joe's insanely busy desktop:



_____________________________
Become a friend of Parallels on MySpace!
Join us at www.myspace.com/parallelsinc!

Parallels, Partenerships, and Professors

I've been emailing back and forth with J. Patrick Fenton, the CIS Department Chair at West Valley College in Saratoga, CA, who's recently started using Parallels as a means to teach his students how to work with Windows, Linux and Mac OS X without having to buy 3 separate computers.

A few days ago, Pat sent me an email that I wanted to share with you. It's straightforward and honest and is a great example of how we partner with our customers large and small to build the best desktop virtualization product in the world.

This is Pat's email in its entirety:

You all have much to be proud of in the latest build of Parallels (Build 5160), and I have to say that it is better, smoother, and much simpler to install and build the Virtual Machine. Now, I know that I had my own learning curve when we started last August to implement our Parallels environment on these Mac Pros, but there were some issues with that installation related to the way the Parallels installer worked as well as the OS Installation Assistant and Windows Express Install. Those problems seem to have vanished! It definitely shows that you are aware of your customer's issues and are listening; plus, it also shows that you are constantly improving the software.

While I'd love to take partial credit for some of the improvements through my correspondence with David regarding the problems we encountered and the way in which we implemented a lab setting (on 37 Mac Pros), I'm certain that your staff is working hard to simply make it work better.

This semester, I'm teaching a section of "Mac 101," a Mac OS Support class based on the Apple Certified course. It so happens that I have the majority of our college district's IS support staff from both of our college campuses taking the course - it was suggested by one of their managers as a good "refresher course" plus a team-building experience. Well, it's turned into a very interesting class, both because of their exposure to system support problems we can explore as exercises, and because they are facing new system implementation problems. With the rise (rebirth?) of Macs on the Intel platform, and the perceived ease-of-use of Mac OS/X (especially with Leopard), there is a clamor for replacing Windows desktops with Macs - but we also can't just ignore Windows because much of our business software and academic tools software is Windows-based and very Windows-centric. By that I mean that not only do many desktop clients only come in Windows-based binary code, equally many of the Web-based tools are absolutely dependent upon Internet Explorer - not even Firefox on the Mac will work (nor in Windows) due to the specific routines used. So, we absolutely have to continue with Windows support.

Because of my experience with Parallels, limited though it may be, some of our IS developer and program maintenance staff bought Macs and Parallels to try. The result was completely positive. I'm on several District IS initiative committees, so I spend quite a bit of time in their area and have noticed a proliferation of Macs - which then was brought up as a topic for discussion in the Mac 101 class. The support staff recognized that they were going to be hit hard with the need to know how to install, implement, maintain, and replicate a Parallels VM on the Macs.

Last week, for our class, I had the group install Parallels on their student systems. We'd already had a class in which we converted Mac OS/X 10.4 Tiger to 10.5 Leopard; thus, we have systems of both configurations to "play" with in the classroom. I downloaded the Parallels 5160 dmg to a classroom server to share as an image to the class Mac Pros. We connected to the server, mounted the Image volume, and used the Parallels-Desktop-5160-Mac-en.dmg from the network to do the Parallels install. Naturally, there were a couple of false starts; but, on the whole, everyone was successful creating their Parallels Desktop. Using the OS Installation Assistant, we specified the Vista express install, accessing a Vista Business image, en-windows-vista-business_x86_DVD_VL-X13-13414.iso, from the same server-based Image library, for the installation. As you may note from the ISO, this is a Volume-License edition of Vista that we access via MSDNAA. Unlike my prior installation experience when Parallels would not accept my license key, the new version sailed through without a hiccup. Everyone's VM started without a problem, other than the typical annoying MS updates.

One very useful change is the feature to allow Shared VM installation - it does all that busy-work to place the Parallels system in the ~/Users/Shared folder, changes the access permissions to Read & Write, even inside the .hdd disk image file! Slick! David, you know how that issue threw me a curve last August! That's REALLY useful in the computer lab environment, and our IT staff is equally happy as they know there will be instances of shared use on the administrative systems. I have not tried the Transporter, but we talked about it in class via the Transporter User Guide, and the support guys are anticipating this to be very useful in their migration of systems, one of their headaches. I'm certain the Image Tool will be equally useful, especially for the support of client desktops but in our labs as well.

There's simply not enough time for me to explore all of the tools and changes in Parallels, though I really need to do it. Coherence, for example, is going to be a major part of implementing Parallels on administrative desktops. I have not used it on my lab machines because I need to teach within Windows, but I know it is a great asset. Increasingly, I find it easier and easier to switch seamlessly between the Mac and Windows; for example, when correcting papers, I can open a Word 2007 .docx file from a folder on the Mac, and it opens within Word 2007 within my Parallels VM of Vista. I just would like more time to see how much I'm missing, but I don't mind the serendipitous surprises!

Thanks for all your efforts; now, get back to work - we expect MORE!

:)

Sincerely,

J Patrick Fenton
CIS Department Chair
West Valley College


Here are a few shots of Pat's class in action, snapped with the iSight camera in his MacBook Pro:

WVCC students working with Parallels Desktop

The instructor machine. This guy and all of the classroom Macs have Vista and Ubuntu installed in Parallels Desktop.

I know that I say it all the time, but our customers and partners are the lifeblood of this company...we really couldn't do it without you.

Want to share your own Parallels success story? Email me what you're up to and I'll post it on the blog.

_____________________________
Become a friend of Parallels on MySpace!
Join us at www.myspace.com/parallelsinc!

An early "Happy Thanksgiving!"

I'm heading out of town for a few days, so I wanted to let everyone know that the blog will be silent next week (and this week too, sort of, as I just got back from a few days in San Francisco at Oracle Open World and Sys-Con SOAworld).

Happy Thanksgiving to all...I'll catch you when I get back.

_____________________________
Become a friend of Parallels on MySpace!
Join us at www.myspace.com/parallelsinc!

Show your support: Vote for Parallels Desktop 3 in the MacWorld "Reader's Choice" Awards

Parallels Desktop 3.0 is on the list of finalists for MacWorld's "Reader's Choice: Best Third-Party Software" Award!

We're up against some pretty heavy competition, so we need YOUR help to get the win, just like you helped the first version of Parallels Desktop become the first ever non-Apple product to win the MacWorld "Reader's Choice Product of the Year" award.

Parallels Desktop 3.0 introduced a pile of game-changing features like 3D graphics support (OpenGL and DirectX 8.1), SmartSelect, Mirrored Folders, and more, and because of that - and our huge, fanatical user community - we're the clear leader of the pack when it comes to third-party Mac apps, and we hope that you do too.

If you're one of the 650,000+ loyal members of Team Orange, hit the MacWorld Reader's Choice Awards site and cast your vote!

Feeling extra-loyal? Email MacWorld editor Phillip Michaels and lobby for Parallels!


_____________________________
Become a friend of Parallels on MySpace!
Join us at www.myspace.com/parallelsinc!

Leopard Promo update

Quick update on our "Celebrate Leopard" promo...

1. We've upped the Apple gift cards from $20 to $25, so you get even more cash when you buy Parallels!
2. We realize that the Apple gift cards only work in the US, so we've worked out a special deal for you International folk; instead of a $25 Apple Gift Card, you'll get a $25 VISA card that you can use anywhere VISA is accepted (which is just about everywhere).
3. Only 1 week left! This offer expires on November 13th, so get it before its gone!

Get your copy and the free goodies here.
_____________________________
Become a friend of Parallels on MySpace!
Join us at www.myspace.com/parallelsinc!

Screenshots of Parallels in Leopard

Finally got around to snapping some screenshots of Parallels running on Leopard. These were shot on my 20" iMac running build 5540:

Parallels "classic" (i.e., single window mode)

Parallels running in Coherence. I love the way the new dock reflects the app icons, even the ones from Windows.


Coherence + Expose = Sweet

_____________________________
Become a friend of Parallels on MySpace!
Join us at www.myspace.com/parallelsinc!

Route1 joins the Parallels ISV Initiative

I wanted to say "welcome" to our new partner, Route1, who just joined the Parallels ISV initiative.

For those of you unfamiliar with Route1, they make a sharp product called MobiKEY™, which is a patent-pending, smart-card enabled, cryptographic USB device. When you put that together with TruOFFICE™, Route1’s secure, remote access service, MobiKEY enables users to connect to their desktop data, applications, network resources and web content from any Internet-enabled Windows-based PC.

In short: You can access your stuff from anywhere and know that the line is completely, totally secure.

Route1 has tested their products up, down and sideways on real PCs, but wanted to be able to give the 650,000+ Mac users running Windows in a Paralles VM the same great options as traditional PC users. Via the ISV Initiative, our team worked with theirs to certify that MobiKEY and TruOFFICE are 100% compatible with Parallels virtual machines. And, we're also working with them to open MobiKEY and TruOFFICE to Linux users via complete compatibility with Parallels Workstation.

You can read the full release on our partnership here.

This is exactly what the ISV initiative is all about; enabling Windows-only software vendors to quickly and easily extend their reach to the fast-growing Mac and Linux markets by ceritfying their programs to work perfectly with Parallels products. Partners not only get their products certified, but also get inside access to our marketing, sales and development teams, so they can bring their newly certified products to market faster and more effectively.

For more information about the ISV Initiative, hit the Parallels Partner Portal.

_____________________________
Become a friend of Parallels on MySpace!
Join us at www.myspace.com/parallelsinc!