Parallells Desktop 5: Detailed Video Review

Remember running Windows XP or 2000 on Virtual PC on your older PowerPC Macs?  Powerbook G4s?  It worked well enough if you need to run simple non-CPU intensive applications but beyond that, can forget about it.  Today with Macs running Intel chips, you're no longer limited by speed or anything else.  It's true, you can use Bootcamp or any number of applications that let's you run Windows XP, Vista, or 7 without taking a huge performance hit.  As matter of fact, some benchmarks showed running Windows under Bootcamp is faster than those from Lenovo, HP, or Dell.

Via MacDailyNews, here is a detailed (15 minutes) review of the newest virtual environment for the OS X and Macs - Parallels Desktop 5.

Here are among the highlights for version 5:

• Optimized for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
• Full support for Aero, including Flip 3D in Windows Vista and 7 & OpenGL 2.1
• Parallels Compressor automatically reclaims hard disk space
• Intel VT-x2 virtualization technology drives maximum performance
• Unmatched virtual machine performance
• Launch Windows apps directly from the Mac dock
• Support for Multi-Touch trackpad gestures in Windows applications
• Improved USB device compatibility — printers, cameras, mobile phones, scanners, GPS devices and more
• Run Mac OS X and Windows on multiple monitors
• Easily organize multiple windows with Exposé and Spaces
• Use Apple remote to control Windows applications
• Copy & paste formatted text and images between Windows, Mac and Linux
• See into the smarter way to run Windows
• Run more than 60 different — operating systems, including Windows, Linux, BSD and more
• Full support for Snow Leopard, Mac OS X Server, 8 virtual CPUs and 64-bit Windows
• SmartGuard’s instant "snapshots" make backup and recovery easier than ever
• Use administrator tools to protect and secure virtual machines
• Enhanced! DirectX 9.0c/9Ex with Shader Model 3 support for games and 3D graphics apps
• Bonus Software Parallels Internet Security by Kaspersky protects from virus and spyware threats, plus Acronis True Image and Acronis Disk Director

I've stopped at Parallels 2 but since upgrading to Snow Leopard, it stopped working.  But just as well since Parallels 5 has a great many improvements over previous versions as well as its competitors.

Check out the video to see if this version is for you.



Also, you might want to consider a couple of other offerings such as Fusion 3 from VMWare or Sun Microsystem's Virtualbox, which is free.

More links and where to buys:

• MacDailyNews
• Chris Pirillo's review
• VMWare's Fusion 3
• Parallels 5 for Mac
• Amazon's Fusion 3 product page
• Amazon's Parallels 5 product page