MacExpo: Parallels
Published October 27th, 2006 in Apple, Noteworthy, Software, Technology
Parallels had quite a small stand, with only one rep, but they certainly impressed me. I’ve never actually had a chance to see parallels in the flesh, and I’ve only heard about it on the Interweb. Apple don’t install it on their Macs in the Apple store so this was new for me. A few people were around the rep who was explaining Parallel, what it does and how it works. When he started up Windows XP on his MacBook Pro, the speed just blew me away. Maybe it was just a fresh install and nothing else was running in the background, but it booted Windows from the BIOS screen in around 30 seconds. Wow! As it was a small booth (around 5 foot by 6 foot) there was only one Mac, which we were unable to try out. However it still had a huge impression on me, and would consider buying it, in the case that I got a Intel Mac. It is a lot easier and faster than booting up Windows in BootCamp, although not everything may work perfectly. There are bugs and flaws, which will get ironed out in future releases.
They had a special offer for those at MacExpo, where you could get Parallels for £39.99 instead of the RRP of £49.99. If I had a Intel Mac, I would have most certainly taken up that offer.














I’m actually a big Parallels user myself. I love Parallels, it is so much more effecient than Boot Camp. My only problem is its lack of Direct3D support, which is said to be released sometime around late Q4 - early Q1.
That is one problem with Parallels, a lot of hardware and software things aren’t supported yet. They probably will be added in the future, it is by no means an easy task. I remember in the beta days when USB supported was limited.