I updated to the March 7, 2007 release (build 3188) and I'm very impressed. Just a few of the features I'm enjoying:
-Dynamic resizing of window (auto-resolution) using corner drag-tab
-Extremely smooth graphics performance
-USB 2.0 support
-Support for encrypted optical discs
-Faster "Pause" performance
-"Coherance" feature (run Parallels OS apps side-by-side with Mac apps)
-REAL drag-and-drop between Mac and Parallels OS
My wife has been expanding her photography hobby and has been wanting Photoshop CS3 for Mac. I have Photoshop CS for Windows and didn't really want to drop $600+ for the Mac version, so I decided to see how it would do under Parallels. I got the latest update to Parallels and loaded up Photoshop...to my surprise, it worked flawlessly! No more lag! They seem to have perfected their emulated video card to the point where there isn't the tiniest bit of lag in the mouse or GUI.
The file sharing system has been dramatically improved as well. You can now drag-and-drop files and folders directly from one OS to the other. Initially I setup a folder share under Windows in Parallels for the images my wife wanted to photoshop, but after reading through the updates I decided to try dragging the entire folder in. FLAWLESS! PLUS, you can drag photos straight from iPhoto into Windows! I'm happy, my wife is happy, and Parallels saved me $600
I should also note that DVD ripping is flawless within build 3188. Just for fun, I tried out DVD Shrink, DVD Decrypter, and RipIt4Me. Everything worked great! Aside from gaming and maybe heavy 3D Graphics work (which you should be doing on a Mac anyway), I'm not sure there are any reasons left to stick with a PC. I think the sole feature remaining is to get multi-core support within a Virtual Machine so that you can run 2 cores in XP on a 4 or 8-core Mac Pro. As far as gaming goes, VMWare has a product called Fusion in beta right now; it's basically the equivalent of Parallels for Mac except that it supports DirectX 8.1. While that adds some gaming capabilities, you still won't be able to play the latest Half-Life 2 episodes. You are probably better off getting a console like an Xbox 360 or else just building a gaming PC for now.
Anyway, I'm very pleased with the March release of Parallels and would definitely recommend it to anyone!
-Dynamic resizing of window (auto-resolution) using corner drag-tab
-Extremely smooth graphics performance
-USB 2.0 support
-Support for encrypted optical discs
-Faster "Pause" performance
-"Coherance" feature (run Parallels OS apps side-by-side with Mac apps)
-REAL drag-and-drop between Mac and Parallels OS
My wife has been expanding her photography hobby and has been wanting Photoshop CS3 for Mac. I have Photoshop CS for Windows and didn't really want to drop $600+ for the Mac version, so I decided to see how it would do under Parallels. I got the latest update to Parallels and loaded up Photoshop...to my surprise, it worked flawlessly! No more lag! They seem to have perfected their emulated video card to the point where there isn't the tiniest bit of lag in the mouse or GUI.
The file sharing system has been dramatically improved as well. You can now drag-and-drop files and folders directly from one OS to the other. Initially I setup a folder share under Windows in Parallels for the images my wife wanted to photoshop, but after reading through the updates I decided to try dragging the entire folder in. FLAWLESS! PLUS, you can drag photos straight from iPhoto into Windows! I'm happy, my wife is happy, and Parallels saved me $600
I should also note that DVD ripping is flawless within build 3188. Just for fun, I tried out DVD Shrink, DVD Decrypter, and RipIt4Me. Everything worked great! Aside from gaming and maybe heavy 3D Graphics work (which you should be doing on a Mac anyway
), I'm not sure there are any reasons left to stick with a PC. I think the sole feature remaining is to get multi-core support within a Virtual Machine so that you can run 2 cores in XP on a 4 or 8-core Mac Pro. As far as gaming goes, VMWare has a product called Fusion in beta right now; it's basically the equivalent of Parallels for Mac except that it supports DirectX 8.1. While that adds some gaming capabilities, you still won't be able to play the latest Half-Life 2 episodes. You are probably better off getting a console like an Xbox 360 or else just building a gaming PC for now.Anyway, I'm very pleased with the March release of Parallels and would definitely recommend it to anyone!
