Parallels Desktop review

I have used Parallels Desktop on my 20″ iMac since well before it was released, including most of the public beta versions. When they offered it for sale, I bought it without hesitation. In short, the software is much better than one would expect for the price.

One thing I must note about Parallels. Do not expect much if your system is RAM starved (ie, you have less than 768MB). Your poor mac will be paging to disk almost constantly and you’ll wonder why your blazing fast computer is so slow. That is because you are beating the tar out of your hard drive. Do yourself a favor. Spare your hard drive (and your precious data) by spending $160 for 2GB of RAM. I did this on my 20″ iMac and my MacBook and both scream.

I use Parallels for running three different operating systems, FreeBSD, Linux, and Windows XP. Since I develop software that runs on the first two, I regularly need access to them both so I am often running one of them in the background. I can code, rsync to the virtual server, test, and continue coding. I open SSH sessions to the virtual server just as if it were a real one. For nearly all intents and purposes, running these operating systems under Parallels is every bit as good as running them on a real server.

In some respects, it is quite a bit better. Since Parallels has come out, the dual 3.0GHz Xeon system that I have tucked away in a rack in our guest bedroom (because the fans are so loud) has not been powered up. In many ways, Parallels is much better than having a real server.

1. It uses far less power, dissipates far less heat, and generates almost no noise pollution which is quite nice in my Texas home.

2. Convenience. My dual Xeon is a server, so switching operating systems meant going into the other room, unplugging the active hotswap hard drive, and plugging in another. With Parallels, simply pause the running one, select another and start it up.

3. Portable. The dual Xeon is anchored to the rack in the closet. My virtual machines can be dropped onto my MacBook drive for portable access. I spent two months away from home this year and that feature was significantly better than dragging along another computer for testing.

4. Easy snapshots. I like to test my software on “virgin” boxes. This means reinstalling the OS quite frequently on a “real” server, or as I do on the Xeon, building a FreeBSD jail to test in. While the SATA disks in the iMac cannot keep pace with the Ultra320 SCSI disks in the server, I can generate a new system with a clean install simply by duplicating a Parallels disk image.

5. Leverages existing computing resources. I already have a really fast desktop, more than fast enough for development work and software testing.

6. More accessible. Because my virtual machines are so much faster (than Virtual PC on a dual G5), I use them much more frequently. Things I would have seldom have taken the time for such as, “I wonder what this looks like in IE for Windows” I check. There is value in that for developers.

7. Stability. My systems never crash. Anything that changes that makes me particularly grumpy. I have had only one crash while running a very early beta of Parallels. I stopped using it until the next beta came out and it’s been steady as a rock every since.

There are a couple downsides to using Parallels. For example, I could not run Virtual PC 2004 for Windows under XP when XP was running under Parallels.

You need enough RAM for Mac OS X (1GB min on Intel systems) and the operating system you will run. For most people, that will be XP which should have 512MB set aside for it.

Parallels is highly recommended.

User Interface

Explain why a Macintosh pull-down menu can be accessed at least five times faster than a typical Windows pull-down menu. For extra credit, suggest at least two reasons why Microsoft made such an apparently stupid decision.

I ran across this question on AskTog and finally know the answer. It’s one of those things I have known for years, but did not understand, “why?” The answer is here: http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html

Salt Lake City – Hot as Hades at the Hilton

We have departed Salt Lake City.

I hereby issue a caution for lodgers in SLC when the temperatures are high (above 90°). Do not expect that because the Hilton is a 4-star rated hotel that they will have adequate air conditioning in the rooms. Silly us, for having such lofty expectations.

We checked in nice and early at about 6pm. The room a little on the warm side (about 75°). I checked the thermostat and it was set for 68° but the A/C wasn’t on. Strange. So I adjusted the thermostat down to 60° and we went out for dinner. We got back around 10 and the room was cooled to about 72°. I was not ideal but it was good enough. We went to sleep.

At 2:30AM Jen and I both awoke sweating and with parched mouths. The room was around 80° and the A/C was not running. We called the front desk who sent up a maintenance man. He checked the thermostat, pulled the little A/C vent off, peered inside, reset the thermostat, and when the little unit began spitting out cool (not cold, cool) air, declared all to be well.

A half hour after he left the room was no cooler than before so I walked down to the front desk and asked for another room. We moved down the hall from room 514 to 517. Upon entering the room I noticed that it too was about 75° in the room and the temp setting on the thermometer was at 68°. Being an engineer with a mimimum of moderate intelligence, I began putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Continue reading “Salt Lake City – Hot as Hades at the Hilton”

Headin’ home – Boise

Yesterday we drove to Portland to say hi to Matt Meehan. Then we drove over to Boise and spent the night at a Red Lion. While a Red Lion is not bad (certainly better than your $23/$39 hotels with big signs), it is not nearly as nice as the DoubleTree Riverside in Boise. We’re off to eat breakfast at a wonderful little diner we found here last time.

The truth about going home.

So many people, with so many questions. We have been so short with answers. It is time to finally confess.

Will we ever return to Texas? I can give you a few details that narrows down our timeline. We have a long tradition of making blackberry pies while in Seattle. We discussed blackberries on the way up here, again while here, and the state of blackberry ripeness before Jen went to Michigan.

There is good news to be had. Eight days ago, I picked 3 ripe blackberries and fed them to Kayla. She enjoyed them very much. This morning, all three of us went on blackberry patrol. This time we picked handfuls of plump black berries and munched on them. Quite soon, we will pick bowls full of blackberries and there will be blackberry pie a la mode. Then, at long last, we can contemplate the journey back to Texas.

Oh, and the salmon are starting to bite.

Image thieves

Thank you myspace, for providing your users with a simple mechanism for stealing not just my images, but also my bandwidth. After perusing my web server logs to find the root of another problem, I noticed a significant amount of my images being served for myspace profile pages.

With a glint in my eye and a small grin, I have just single-handedly caused a rash of 403 Forbidden errors to appear on the pages of many myspace users. I doubt having broken images on a myspace profile is cool nor would having a random sysadmin expose your thievery to your fan base.

I can’t stop them from stealing my images, but I can stop them from stealing my bandwidth.