Should I buy Parallels?

[TraceyS/FL]

UGH.

I've ran it under the demo - it worked well, but took over my Wireless and the only way to get it working again on the Mac side was to uninstall it. I tried to no avail to get help on the Parallels forum....

Now we have solved other wireless issues - that could be related to the problem i was having (maybe, it's a stretch) with Parallels, but my Demo key has expired.

So I either bite the bullet and buy it and hope I can get help with it after I buy it (they don't sound too helpful though). I just need ONE app to run, but i should/do use it off and on all day long. Way easier than booting into boot camp all day long.....

So that is my dilemma for the weekend......

Tracey

 

[72930]

Until more bugs are fixed, hopefully fixing your problem, you can try the VMWare Fusion beta for free...

 

[TraceyS/FL]

It won't use the Boot Camp partition though right?

I have another app that other people have running under Parallels (I never got it working either), that needs true USB support. It works fine under Boot Camp though - and the Mac Version is shipping this week....

Any clue as to how much it will cost??

Thanks bunches - more to think about!

 

[72930]

Any clue as to how much it will cost??

Which app?

 

[TraceyS/FL]

Which app?

VMWare. Although, i'm not sure i'm up to having to rely on it. I know that I can run in Boot Camp, and the thought of not having that fallback isn't sitting well with me (at the moment).

I guess I'll keep thinking about it for now.... I can do what i need to today in Boot Camp and then go from there.

 

[72930]

VMWare. Although, i'm not sure i'm up to having to rely on it. I know that I can run in Boot Camp, and the thought of not having that fallback isn't sitting well with me (at the moment).

I guess I'll keep thinking about it for now.... I can do what i need to today in Boot Camp and then go from there.

The final version is said (by a member here in the know, I cannot remember who) to have Boot Camp support, DX9 (shown on a video) and an answer to Coherence...

 

[TraceyS/FL]

Thanks, i'll mull that over while I work on Homeschool Stuff.

The good part is being in XP most of the day today - I'll get it done instead of getting sidetracked and playing instead

 

[72930]

Thanks, i'll mull that over while I work on Homeschool Stuff.

The good part is being in XP most of the day today - I'll get it done instead of getting sidetracked and playing instead

Really? I'm much more productive in OS X...

 

[TraceyS/FL]

LOL! BUT, if the App i need to work on only runs in XP - I won't get distracted with other fun stuff... Aperture.... the boards....

So, i'll spend the chunk of the day getting the Homeschool Stuff entered for the next few weeks, then i can PLAY!!!

 

[northernmunky]

I've been using a Powerbook G4 for over a year now, I sold my £2000 geeked out Windows PC and bought a little crap £200 PC 'just in case' I needed to do any PC stuff...

I never so much as switched it on.

 

[SteveG4Cube]

I was using the Parallels demo running my Boot Camp partition as the OS, and they recommend that you dont suspend the system but rather shut down, that way you dont corrupt anything if you decide to reboot into XP in the meantime. The time it takes to launch Parallels and wait for XP to "boot" is longer than it takes to just re-boot into XP, so unless you need to swap files between OSX and XP on the fly I find it faster to just dual boot. It probably makes more sense to just have another windows OS install specifically for Parallels. Then you can just suspend it when you close Parallels.

As for USB support, I found that the app I needed to run wouldn't recognize my USB to serial cable after I installed the Windows driver for it. I removed the OSX version of the driver and then it worked fine in Parallels. It seemed like OSX was grabbing the port and not allowing XP to use it. Maybe that'll help some people.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

I've been using a Powerbook G4 for over a year now, I sold my £2000 geeked out Windows PC and bought a little crap £200 PC 'just in case' I needed to do any PC stuff...

I never so much as switched it on.

I so wish I could do that. I had to dust off my old Vaio laptop to run the Homeschool App (homeschooltracker.com). I searched and searched for something equivalent on the Mac and found nothing. The opportunity is there if someone wants to write something similar.

I was using the Parallels demo running my Boot Camp partition as the OS, and they recommend that you dont suspend the system but rather shut down, that way you dont corrupt anything if you decide to reboot into XP in the meantime. The time it takes to launch Parallels and wait for XP to "boot" is longer than it takes to just re-boot into XP, so unless you need to swap files between OSX and XP on the fly I find it faster to just dual boot. It probably makes more sense to just have another windows OS install specifically for Parallels. Then you can just suspend it when you close Parallels.

As for USB support, I found that the app I needed to run wouldn't recognize my USB to serial cable after I installed the Windows driver for it. I removed the OSX version of the driver and then it worked fine in Parallels. It seemed like OSX was grabbing the port and not allowing XP to use it. Maybe that'll help some people.

Well, considering I need to just check work as complete throughout the day, and check my teacher notes - booting back & forth would be a royal pain. I always shut down the XP stuff anyway.

I didn't have a Mac USB driver for this item until yesterday - so that wasn't what was causing my issues. I'll keep that in mind though - its opposite what Parallels was doing to my wireless network!

I've gotten no where today - i need to print, and can't get the stupid printer going in XP. Yuck. I don't miss it at all....

Uh oh, kids making bad choices with paint -
tracey

 

[SteveG4Cube]

Did you happen to try your app in Crossover? I've been able to get a few "untested" apps working with it.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

It needs .net2 to run - and that is confirmed to NOT work.

I got all excited for a few minutes last week - I did try it and got no where. I'd be willing to pay $$ to get it running under Crossover - but i doubt i can afford to get .net AND the app running. I sent the link to the developer though.

oh wait, i should try it on app #2 that I don't really need to run (the Mac version is out now), but there is a file format i'd like to have it for. That is the USB driver one, but i'd be happy not driving the cutter with it at this point.

Wonder if i threw that demo out?!?!

 

[TraceyS/FL]

OK, it just freaked.

Mind you, I only have it installed - but can't DO anything because the demo expired 2 days ago.

So when i just woke the computer up i wasn't on my wireless net. Go into the Network Prefs - the Airport is red, on but not connected to the internet. Both the Parallels things are Orange, the one saying that parallels probably isn't connected to the internet because it has a self-assigned IP addy.

All i did was uninstall and reboot - all got fixed.

I have no clue what is going on - but i'm apparently the only one having the issue like this, and I have no clue what to try to FIX it, it makes everything unuseable.....