Parallels Desktop for Mac - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Parallels Desktop for Mac by Parallels, Inc.

Parallels, Inc.

Parallels, Inc. is a privately held virtualization technology company with offices in the USA, Germany, UK, France, Japan, China, Russia and Ukraine. Parallels' US offices are in Renton, WA.The company has more than 700 employees as of 2010....

, is software providing hardware virtualization

Hardware virtualization

Computer hardware virtualization is the virtualization of computers or operating systems. It hides the physical characteristics of a computing platform from users, instead showing another abstract computing platform...

for Macintosh

Macintosh

The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...

computers with Intel processors.

Overview

Parallels, Inc.

is a developer of desktop and server virtualization software.

Historical

Released on June 15, 2006, it was the first software product to bring virtualization mainstream to Macintosh computers utilizing the Apple–Intel architecture (Connectix

Connectix

Connectix Corporation was a software and hardware company, noted for having released innovative products that were either made obsolete as Apple Computer incorporated the ideas into system software, or were sold to other companies once they become popular...

VirtualPC was released in 1997 for PowerPC

PowerPC

PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...

Macs).

Its name initially was 'Parallels Workstation

Parallels Workstation

Parallels Workstation is the first commercial software product released by Parallels, Inc., a developer of desktop and server virtualization software...

for Mac OS X', which was consistent with the company's corresponding Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

and Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

products. This name was not well received within the Mac community, where some felt that the name, particularly the term “workstation,” evoked the aesthetics of a Windows product. Parallels agreed: “Since we've got a great Mac product, we should make it look and sound like a Mac product...”, it was therefore renamed ‘Parallels Desktop for Mac’.

On January 10, 2007, Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac was awarded “Best in Show” at MacWorld 2007

Macworld Conference & Expo

Produced by Boston-based IDG World Expo, Macworld | iWorld is a trade-show with conference tracks dedicated to the Apple Macintosh platform. It is held annually in the United States, usually during the second week of January...

Technical

Parallels Desktop for Mac is a hardware emulation virtualization software, using hypervisor

Hypervisor

In computing, a hypervisor, also called virtual machine manager , is one of many hardware virtualization techniques that allow multiple operating systems, termed guests, to run concurrently on a host computer. It is so named because it is conceptually one level higher than a supervisory program...

technology that works by mapping the host computer’s hardware resources directly to the virtual machine’s resources. Each virtual machine thus operates identically to a standalone computer, with virtually all the resources of a physical computer. Because all guest virtual machines use the same hardware drivers irrespective of the actual hardware on the host computer, virtual machine instances are highly portable between computers. For example, a running virtual machine can be stopped, copied to another physical computer, and restarted.

Parallels Desktop for Mac is able to virtualize a full set of standard PC hardware, including

A virtualized CPU
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...

of the same type as the host's physical processor,
ACPI
ACPI
ACPI may refer to:*Advanced Configuration and Power Interface for computer configuration and management*Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc....

compliance system,
A generic motherboard
Motherboard
In personal computers, a motherboard is the central printed circuit board in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, providing connectors for other peripherals. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively known as the mainboard, system board, or, on Apple...

compatible with the Intel i965 chipset,
Up to 8 GB of RAM
Ram
-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...

for guest virtual machines,
Up to 1 GB of video RAM (VRAM),
VGA and SVGA video adapter with VESA
VESA
VESA is an international standards body for computer graphics founded in 1989 by NEC Home Electronics and eight other video display adapter manufacturers.VESA's initial goal was to produce a standard for 800×600 SVGA resolution video displays...

3.0 support and OpenGL
OpenGL
OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...

and DirectX
DirectX
Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...

acceleration,
A 1.44 MB floppy drive, which can be mapped to a physical drive or to an image file,
Up to four IDE devices. This includes virtual hard drives
Hard disk
A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...

ranging in size from 20 MB to 2 TB each and CD/DVD-ROM drives. Virtual CD/DVD-ROM drives can be mapped to either physical drives or ISO image
ISO image
An ISO image is an archive file of an optical disc, composed of the data contents of every written sector of an optical disc, including the optical disc file system...

files.
DVD/CD-ROM “pass-through” access,
Up to four serial port
Serial port
In computing, a serial port is a serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time...

s that can be mapped to a pipe or to an output file,
Up to three bi-directional parallel port
Parallel port
A parallel port is a type of interface found on computers for connecting various peripherals. In computing, a parallel port is a parallel communication physical interface. It is also known as a printer port or Centronics port...

s, each of which can be mapped to a real port, to a real printer, or to an output file,
An Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....

virtual network card compatible with Realtek
Realtek
Realtek Semiconductor Corp. , a fabless IC design house situated in the Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu, Taiwan, was founded in October 1987, and subsequently approved as a listed company on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in 1998...

RTL8029(AS), capable of up to 16 network interface connections,
Up to eight USB 2.0 devices and two USB 1.1 devices,
An AC'97-compatible sound card.
A 104-key Windows enhanced keyboard and a PS/2
PS/2 connector
The PS/2 connector is a 6-pin Mini-DIN connector used for connecting some keyboards and mice to a PC compatible computer system. Its name comes from the IBM Personal System/2 series of personal computers, with which it was introduced in 1987...

wheel mouse.

Note that no mention is made of support for the following host interfaces:

Bluetooth
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
Firewire
Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel, or FC, is a gigabit-speed network technology primarily used for storage networking. Fibre Channel is standardized in the T11 Technical Committee of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards , an American National Standards Institute –accredited standards...
PC Card
PC Card
In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States...
SCSI
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...
SAS
Serial Attached SCSI
Serial Attached SCSI is a computer bus used to move data to and from computer storage devices such as hard drives and tape drives. SAS depends on a point-to-point serial protocol that replaces the parallel SCSI bus technology that first appeared in the mid 1980s in data centers and workstations,...
eSATA
TOSLINK
TOSLINK
TOSLINK is a standardized optical fiber connection system. Also known generically as an "optical audio cable," its most common use is in consumer audio equipment , where it carries a digital audio stream from components such as MiniDisc, CD and DVD players, DAT recorders, computers, and modern...

Version 2.5

The first official release of version 2.5 was on February 27, 2007, as build 3186.

Version 2.5 brought support for USB 2.0 devices, which expanded the number of USB devices supported at native speed, including support for built in iSight

ISight

iSight is a webcam, both external and internal, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. The external iSight was sold retail for US$149, connected to a computer via a FireWire cable, and came with a set of mounts to place it atop any then-current Apple display, laptop computer, all-in-one desktop...

USB web-cams. The amount of video RAM allocated to the guest OS was made adjustable, up to 32MB. Full featured CD/DVD drives arrived in this version, which allowed the user to burn disks directly in the virtual environment, and play any copy-protected CD or DVD as one would in Mac OS X. In addition, a shared clipboard and drag-drop support between Mac OS X and the guest OS was implemented. This version brought the ability for users with a Windows XP installation to upgrade to Windows Vista from within the VM environment. A new feature known as Coherence was added, which removed the Windows chrome, desktop, and the virtualization frames to create a more seamless desktop environment between Windows and Mac OS X applications. This version also allowed users to boot their existing Boot Camp Windows XP partitions, which eliminated the need to have multiple Windows installations on their Mac. A tool called Parallels Transporter was included to allow users to migrate their Windows PC, or existing VMware

VMware

VMware, Inc. is a company providing virtualization software founded in 1998 and based in Palo Alto, California, USA. The company was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2004, and operates as a separate software subsidiary ....

or Virtual PC VMs to Parallels Desktop for Mac.

Netsys lawsuit

In 2007, the German company Netsys GmbH sued Parallels' German distributor Avanquest for copyright violation, claiming that Parallels Desktop and Parallels Workstation are directly based on a line of products called “twoOStwo” that Parallels developed on paid commission for Netsys, of which it says, Netsys has been assigned all copyrights. Additionally, the lawsuit claimed that Parallels Desktop 2.5's compatibility with “twoOStwo” showed that the two software products are run by essentially the same functional core. When Netsys lost its initial urgency proceeding, in which it requested a temporary injunction from the Landgericht district court of Berlin, it filed a new suit.

Version 3.0

On June 7, 2007 build 4124 was released as the first publicly available version of Desktop 3.0.

Version 3.0 retained all of the functionality from previous versions and added new features and tools. Support for DirectX

DirectX

Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...

8.1 and OpenGL

OpenGL

OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...

was added, allowing Mac users to play some Windows games without the need to boot into Windows with Boot Camp. A new feature called SmartSelect offers cross OS file and application integration by allowing the user to open Windows files with Mac OS X programs and vice versa. Parallels Explorer was introduced, which allows the user to browse their Windows system files in Mac OS X without actually launching Windows. A new snapshot feature was included, allowing one to restore their virtual machine environment to a previous state in case of issues. Further, Parallels added a security manager to limit the amount of interaction between the Windows and Mac OS X installations. This version included a long awaited complete “Parallels tools'” driver suite for Linux guest operating systems. Therefore integration between Mac OS X and Linux guest-OS's has been greatly improved.

Despite the addition of numerous new features, tools and added functionality, the first iteration of Desktop for Mac 3.0 may be missing some of features that Parallels had planned for it. A Parallels, Inc. representative stated at MacWorld

Macworld Conference & Expo

in January 2007 that version 3.0 would bring accelerated graphics, “multi-core virtual machines/virtual SMP, some SCSI support, a more Mac-like feel, as well as a more sophisticated coherence mode, dubbed Coherence 2.0”. While accelerated graphics have materialised, Coherence, as well as the overall look and feel of Parallels Desktop for Mac has only changed slightly. Also, SCSI

SCSI

Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...

support has not been implemented.

It is currently unknown if these features have been abandoned altogether, or if they will show up in a later build of version 3.0.

Build 4560, released on July 17, 2007, added an imaging tool which allowed users to add capacity to their virtual disks.

Feature update

Build 5160, released on September 11, 2007,
added some new features and updated some current features.

The release focused on updates to Coherence, with support for Exposé

Exposé (Mac OS X)

Exposé is a feature of the Mac OS X operating system. First previewed on 23 June 2003 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference as a feature of the then forthcoming Mac OS X v10.3, Exposé allows a user to quickly locate an open window, or to hide all windows and show the desktop without the need...

, window shadows, transparent windows, and the ability to overlap several Windows and Mac windows. Further, Parallels' Image Tool was updated to allow one to change their virtual hard disk format between plain and expanding.
Parallels Explorer was updated to allow for one to automatically mount an offline VM hard drive to the Mac desktop. Some new features added are iPhone

IPhone

The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

support in Windows, allowing iTunes

ITunes

iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

in Windows to sync

Synchronization

Synchronization is timekeeping which requires the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. The familiar conductor of an orchestra serves to keep the orchestra in time....

with it. Users can now mirror desktops or other folders. Further, Mac drives can now be mapped by Windows and sound devices can now be changed ‘on the fly

On the fly

-Colloquial usage:In colloquial use, on the fly means something created when needed. The phrase is used to mean:# something that was not planned ahead# changes that are made during the execution of same activity: ex tempore, impromptu.-Automotive usage:...

’. Up to 2 GB of RAM can be allocated to a virtual machine, with a total of 4 GB of RAM available.

Parallels Desktop for Mac Build 5608 added support for guest Parallels Tools for Linux in the latest Linux distributions (including Ubuntu 8). It also added support for running 3D graphics in Windows virtual machines on Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.3.

Use of code from the Wine project

According to Parallels' Licensing page, Desktop for Mac version 3.0 contains Direct3D

Direct3D

Direct3D is part of Microsoft's DirectX application programming interface . Direct3D is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems , and for other platforms through the open source software Wine. It is the base for the graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems...

code that was originally developed by the Wine

Wine (software)

Wine is a free software application that aims to allow computer programs written for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems. Wine also provides a software library, known as Winelib, against which developers can compile Windows applications to help port them to Unix-like...

open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

project. Wine software is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License

GNU Lesser General Public License

The GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License...

, which required Parallels to release the source code

Source code

In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...

. Parallels released the modified source code on July 2, 2007, about 2 weeks after the promised release date. A Parallels spokesman explained the reasons for the delay in a message on the official company blog.

Version 4.0

Version 4.0, released November 11, 2008, updates its GUI, adds some new features, enhances its performance by up to 50% and has been developed to consume 15–30% less power than previous versions. Version 4.0 is the first version of Parallels Desktop that supports both 32-bit and 64-bit guest operating systems. Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac’s 3D support includes DirectX 9.0, DirectX Pixel Shader 2.0 and OpenGL 2.0 as well as 256 MB video memory. It also adds support for 8 GB RAM in a virtual machine and 8-way SMP. Parallels Desktop 4.0 introduces an adaptive hypervisor, which allows users to focus the host computer’s resources towards either host or the guest operating system.

Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac adds some new features such as:

A fourth viewing mode called Modality, which allows users to scale the size of an active guest operating system on the Mac’s desktop
A new screenshot utility called Clips, which lets users take and share screenshots between the host and the guest operating systems.
Start Menu integration and Automatic Windows Notifications on the Apple Menu Bar.
The ability to use select voice commands to remotely control the virtual machine.
The ability to start and stop a virtual machine via the iPhone. (Requires installing an iPhone application from Apple's AppStore.)

Since the Version 4.0 release, Parallels Desktop for Mac has a new logo. The new logo has what resembles an aluminum iMac

IMac

The iMac is a range of all-in-one Macintosh desktop computers built by Apple. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its introduction in 1998, and has evolved through five distinct forms....

, with what appears to be Windows XP

Windows XP

Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...

on the screen and 2 parallel red lines overlaid on right side.

Feature Update

Build 3810, released January 9, 2009, includes performance enhancements and features, such as DirectX 9.0 Shaders Model 2 and Vertex Shader support for additional 3D support Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE4) for better media applications performance. Build 3810 also adds support for running Windows 7 in a VM and for running Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server as either a host or as a guest OS.

Also included are usability features such as the ability to share Windows files by dragging them directly to a Mac application in Mac Dock. Windows can now also automatically start in the background when a user opens a Windows application on the Mac desktop. Version 4.0 drew criticism for problems upgrading from Version 3.0 shortly after its initial release. Build 3810 also addresses installation and upgrade issues previously experienced with Version 4.0 and introduces the option to enroll in the company's new Customer Experience Program, which lets customers provide information about their preferences and user priorities.

Version 5

Officially released on November 4, 2009, Parallels Desktop 5 adds several new features, mainly to improve integration with the host OS.

New features include:

3d graphics and speed improvements
Optimized for Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
support for Windows 7
theming of Windows applications to make them look like native applications
support for Multi-Touch gestures (from a trackpad or Magic Mouse) and the Apple Remote
The ability to drag and drop formatted text and images between Windows, Linux, and Mac applications,
The ability for a system administrator to lock down a virtual machine so that users can't change the state of the virtual machine,
Support for Open GL 2.1 for Linux guest virtual machines.
support for DirectX 9c with Shader Model 3.

Linux guest operating systems

Parallels Tools support Xorg 1.7
X.Org Server
X.Org Server refers to the X server release packages stewarded by the X.Org Foundation,which is hosted by freedesktop.org, and grants...

in Fedora 12 virtual machines (experimental)
Parallels Tools support Mandriva
Mandriva
Mandriva S.A. is a publicly traded Linux and open source software company with its headquarters in Paris, France and development center in Curitiba, Brazil. Mandriva, S.A...

2010 (experimental)
OpenSUSE
OpenSUSE
openSUSE is a general purpose operating system built on top of the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported openSUSE Project and sponsored by SUSE...

11.1 installation media auto detection

Windows guest operating systems

Improved resume from suspend in virtual machines with multiple monitors assigned.
Improved performance of file access via Shared Folders.

3D & Video

Improved performance for video playback in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Windows Aero
Windows Aero
Windows Aero is the graphical user interface and the default theme in most editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, operating systems released by Microsoft. It is also available in Windows Server 2008, but is not enabled by default. Its name is a backronym for Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and...

is not available by default for machines with Intel GMA X3100 and GMA 950 graphic adapters (some MacBook and Mac Mini models). It is available on MacBooks with NVIDIA 9400M graphics cards.
Vertical synchronization is now configurable. You can configure these settings using the corresponding option in the virtual machine video configuration page.
Improved 3D performance for the video game Mirror's Edge
Mirror's Edge
Mirror's Edge is a single-player first person action-adventure video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts. The game was announced on July 10, 2007, and was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in November 2008. A Microsoft Windows version was released...

.

Mac OS X Server guest operating system

The ability to pass kernel options to the Mac OS X Server guest OS has been added. To do so, enable the "Select boot device on startup" option in the virtual machine configuration: it will enable you to specify the necessary kernel options in the 5-seconds timeout before booting the kernel.

Version 6

Officially announced on September 9, 2010 and launched on September 14, 2010, Parallel 6 supports full 64-bit support for the first time. Parallels claims that Parallels Desktop 6 for Mac "[has] over 80 new and improved features, including speed 40% above the previous version."
Specific new features include:

An all-new 64-bit engine
5.1 Surround Sound support
Better import implementation of VMware, Virtual PC virtual machines and Boot Camp partitions
Improved network, hard drive and Transporter performance
Windows program Spotlight integration
Faster Windows launch time
Enhanced 3D graphics that are 40% better than previous versions
Ability to extend Mac OS X Parental Controls to Windows applications
Ability to use Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts in Windows applications
Enhanced Spaces and Exposé support

Version 7

Officially announced on September 1, 2011 and released on September 6, 2011, Parallels Desktop 7 adds many new features, compared to its previous version.

The list below contains most important features (according to developer's website) but not all of them. More information about new features could be found on developer's official website.

Integration with Mac OS X Lion :
- Full-screen support
- Use of Launchpad for Windows apps
- Mission Control support
- Lion as a guest OS
- Lion animations support
Improved user interface
New standard help and documentation
Shared devices with Mac OS X
Longer battery life
Mac OS X parental controls support
Support for Intel AES-NI encryption
Enhanced performance and 3D graphics
Support for up to 1GB video memory in virtual machine
Enhanced audio support - up to 192kHz
Surround sound 7.1

Host

Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac requires an Intel-powered Mac running Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger"

Mac OS X v10.4

Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger is the fifth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Tiger was released to the public on 29 April 2005 for US$129.95 as the successor to Mac OS X Panther , which had been released 18 months earlier...

10.4.11 or later.

Guest

In Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac, support for guests includes a variety of 32-bit and 64-bit x86 operating systems, including

multiple versions of Microsoft Windows, including Windows 7, as well as MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...

,
Mac OS X Leopard Server, Snow Leopard Server, and Mac OS X Lion
Mac OS X Lion
Mac OS X Lion is the eighth and current major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers....

,
various Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

distributions, FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...

,
eComStation
EComStation
eComStation or eCS is a PC operating system based on OS/2, published by Serenity Systems. It includes several additions and accompanying software not present in the IBM version of the system.-Differences between eComStation and OS/2:...

, OS/2
OS/2
OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...

, Solaris,

Known limitations

Parallels Desktop for Mac 5, as of November 2009, has issues including:

Windows theme may be switched to Windows Classic theme upon disabling the MacLook option. To work around this issue, enable MacLook, and then disable it again, or restart the virtual machine.
Apple Remote does not work exclusively within the virtual machine on Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.6.1 (Snow Leopard). To solve this Issue, upgrade your system to Mac OS X 10.6.2 or later.
Shared folders do not work in 64-bit Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server virtual machines. In 32-bit Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server virtual machines, shared folders work fine.
Some foreign (VMware for instance) Ubuntu virtual machines cannot be imported using the Parallels Transporter. This is probably an ext4 problem.
Cannot import standard OVA appliances from other software (such as Virtualbox
VirtualBox
Oracle VM VirtualBox is an x86 virtualization software package, originally created by software company Innotek GmbH, purchased by Sun Microsystems, and now developed by Oracle Corporation as part of its family of virtualization products...

)

Parallels Desktop for Mac 6 does not support more than 256 M of video ram (VRAM).

External links

Reviews

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.