Your Parallels experiences

[GfulDedFan 0]

I installed Parallels Desktop last weekend and it works great. My 512 mb MacBook needs a little more horsepower, but overall it's doing exactly what I need; namely, use windows software on a Mac.

Anyone have experience with Parallels and XP as the guest OS?

The weirdest part about it is that my HP looks and acts like a Mac and when I'm on my Mac in the guest OS and full screen.....it's XP.

[dreamsINdigital 0]

Yeah I use Parallels, I used to have XP on it, but I have Vista now. It really shines when you have a lot of RAM. I used to have 512, but upgraded my MacBook to 2GB and it flies now. I can switch between Parallels and a Mac app open at the same time with lo lag at all! You should upgrade.

[Spyrte 0]

I am also considering upgrading my ram...im just trying to decide what difference there would be between 1GB and 2GB...I know it sounds stupid, but I actually dont know the difference and being at the apple store to test the computers will not probably do much since its not my computer that I can do a test run...

Im trying to avoid spending any unnecessary money whenever I do upgrade (pretty soon)..Im working on a budget as I am sure quite a few others are as well...

[dreamsINdigital 0]

There is a bigger difference going from 512 MB to 1 GB than there is with 1 GB to 2 GB. I don't think things will really be faster, but you'll be able to do more at the same time and have more apps open simultaneously without any slowdowns with 2 GB.

[GfulDedFan 0]

Spyrte, Do you have Parallel? Because if you do, you can add to your vitual ram as well. For instance....when you have 1 GB real memory, you can allocate up to half to the guest OS. Likewise, if you upgrade your physical ram to 2 GB...1 GB can go to the VM to run the guest.

If the guest is XP or Vista....the more the merrier.

I'm going to 2 GB for $350 (ouch!) but then again, it's like having 2 good laptops in one.

[dreamsINdigital 0]

You're getting ripped off.

I got 2 GB for like $150 shipped from Newegg.com. I got the G.SKILL RAM, it's reliable.

[Ellada 0]

parallels has corrupted my boot camp partition twice (i allowed it to run off my boot camp partition). i now keep a boot camp partition for gaming and a separate XP VM for when I need it, which is pretty much never.

parallels is cool, but i really don't need windows for anything besides gaming and IE. it's pretty fast for me. i use it to run various distros of linux for fun, again no use for them.

[duyvan82 0]

I've been running Parallels exclusively on my MacBook for a few months now (I just can't be bothered restarting the machine every time I want to get on Windows) and it's been a great experience, something you would expect with a Mac and OSX

The new "coherence mode" is just awesome, I love the way you can launch windows apps off OSX's dock, also it's great to have just the current working window on your OSX desktop, I kind of don't like the XP/Vista desktop that much

[iGo 0]

I'm planning to buy MBP, and really considering buying parallels... since I'll replacing my XP box at home and by ISP's software doesn't do Mac.

at least I'll be able to use net at home while running both OSX and XP.

A Quick question (i'm too bored right now to check Parallel's faq)

Is it possible to set Proxy between XP and OSX on Parallels? so that my OSX apps also get connected?

[dreamsINdigital 0]

I don't know about a proxy, but OSX and XP can already connect to the net at the same time.

[iGo 0]

See, actually the problem is my ISP (internet over local network), uses this client called Cyberoam 24online client... which unfortunately doesn't work on OSX. So I was wondering if in such case OSX could borrow (via Proxy) from XP.

[Conner 0]

I know that the guest OS in paralells connects through os x, but there must be a way to reverse it.

[Dream_Team 0]

iGo : maybe some ssh (using putty) tunelling ...

[metallicamaster3 0]

i don't like Parallels. never caught on to me. i guess cuz im used to Boot Camp. Like it a lot better.

[GfulDedFan 0]

They're somewhat different programs MM3....

Bootcamp - one OS at a time. To move to the other you have to shutdown and re-boot.

Parallels - both OS's at the same time. To move from one to the other is a click. Older versions of Parallels were not very user friendly and statble but the current stuff works like a charm.

[metallicamaster3 0]

oh? maybe ill give it a try. i dont have the money to get it. Rebooting doesnt bother me either.

[GfulDedFan 0]

It's $80 but once in a while it's $50-$60 w/ rebate. Then you gotta have a full OS installation disk. Course some OS's are cheaper than others and it will handle multiple ones.

[Nonny 0]

Parallels is great with XP.

I'm running it on a MacBook w/ 2GB RAM and it's nice and fast and I love Coherence mode too. A lot more convenient then having to reboot. You can drag and drop files between both OS's as well.

[GfulDedFan 0]

I only have one problem with Parallels....

One program that I run in the Windows side is a terminal emulator so that I can login to my Linux server at work through the external IP. If I am logged in and I let Windows go idle for a while, the emulator (Anzio Lite) freezess on me. I am guessing that it is a Parallels setting having to do with memory allocation and timing out.

Other than that, it's funtastic...