Big Announcement from Parallels

Along with many others, I am a big fan of what Parallels is doing with
their “Parallels Desktop for Mac.” This is the virtualization product
that allows a (Intel) Mac user to run Windows, Linux, Solaris right along side
Mac OS X without rebooting as with Boot Camp. (I believe Boot Camp
supports Windows and
Linux
but not Solaris.)

So far, Beta copies of the Parallels product for Mac have been $39.95.

Today, Parallels announced that, at the request of customers, they are
combining the Parallels Desktop with Parallels Compressor. The latter
is a tool that “can compress the size of a Windows virtual machine (VM)
by 50% or more, to conserve hard drive space, get VMs to a “burnable”
size, and increase VM speed” according to Ben Rudolph, Marketing Manager
for Parallels. Now if you take the price for the release version of
Parallels workstation ($79.99) and combine it with the price for the
Compressor ($179.99) you get a good chuck of change. But Parallels made
this announcement today:

• The $39.99 pre-order price is still in effect, and will be until the
  close of the beta program.
• Customers who already pre-ordered will receive the new, upgraded
  version including Compressor at NO ADDITIONAL COST.
• As a special extended offer, we’ll be offering the new, all inclusive
  version for $49.99 for 30 days following the general release.

So I would recommend that if you have an Intel-based Mac and want to run
other OSes, side-by-side with Mac OS X, it’s time to jump on this offer.

The Parallels Website is here.

John Martellaro