Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS)
Parallels | Parallels Remote Application Server 18Windows, Windows Server 2016 Base win2019 - 64-bit Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
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Parallels is a Developer's Best Friend
What do you like best?
I love the fact that Parallels lets me use all the goodness that is my Mac, while developing for various platforms - without having to mess around with having a dozen physicals or VM's on remote sites (e.g. Azure, Amazon).
Once of the nicest features of Parallels is the Coherence mode - which lets me have - say a Visual Studio IDE, or another IDE instance running withing my Mac - with full copy/paste ability. I can use tools that I need to running on Windows or Linux - without having the pain of rebooting or feeling like I'm going from one user experience to another - everything is seamless - and that's the beauty of Parallels - it lets me forget about it and focus on what is important - my work.
Another key feature is that Parallels supports vagrant out of the box and without having to pay an extra fee (as is the case with VMWare Fusion or Workstation if you want to use it with Vagrant - you need the VMWare plugin - which costs). The Parallels Vagrant plugin started life as an open source project, and remains that way - though under the direct custodianship of Parallels themselves.
Vagrant allows me to tear up VMs on demand for when I'm working on applications that require me to do that, it also allows me to prep-up my Docker containers ready for deployment remotely.
There is a lot more I could write about Parallels - and I've been an avid user since I moved from Windows to Mac over 5 years ago now - it let my transition be smooth and pain-free, and it has been a regular feature in my Applications folder, politely letting me forget about it, while allowing me to utilize all of its amazing goodness - letting me get the most from my Mac.
Once of the nicest features of Parallels is the Coherence mode - which lets me have - say a Visual Studio IDE, or another IDE instance running withing my Mac - with full copy/paste ability. I can use tools that I need to running on Windows or Linux - without having the pain of rebooting or feeling like I'm going from one user experience to another - everything is seamless - and that's the beauty of Parallels - it lets me forget about it and focus on what is important - my work.
Another key feature is that Parallels supports vagrant out of the box and without having to pay an extra fee (as is the case with VMWare Fusion or Workstation if you want to use it with Vagrant - you need the VMWare plugin - which costs). The Parallels Vagrant plugin started life as an open source project, and remains that way - though under the direct custodianship of Parallels themselves.
Vagrant allows me to tear up VMs on demand for when I'm working on applications that require me to do that, it also allows me to prep-up my Docker containers ready for deployment remotely.
There is a lot more I could write about Parallels - and I've been an avid user since I moved from Windows to Mac over 5 years ago now - it let my transition be smooth and pain-free, and it has been a regular feature in my Applications folder, politely letting me forget about it, while allowing me to utilize all of its amazing goodness - letting me get the most from my Mac.
What do you dislike?
Whats do dislike - nothing as far as I can see, apart from perhaps as one of my colleagues had said - why isn't there a Windows or Linux version of Parallels - why is it only a Mac product? I couldn't answer that - but since I used a Mac - arguably I didn't care. However - that would be a major plus, if Parallels Desktop could be ported to Windows and Linux - that way, the Linux users wouldn't have to use Virtualbox and the Windows users Hyper-V or VMWare.
What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
A key business problem would be when users don't want to use Windows machines - for many reasons. This allows the work to proceed, within Windows - while the user can continue to use their Macs.
For a development house - this helps massively as it allows developers to continue building Mac and iOS apps on their macs - while having the ability to do the same - via Parallels - for Windows Phone (Windows), Android (Linux)*
*I'm aware that Android apps can be developed directly on a Mac, but some people choose to not do things that way - Parallels allows us to have that flexibility.
Another issue that was resolved was the ability to use Parallels with Vagrant to prep provisioning scripts ensure they are perfect, before pushing them out to Amazon, Azure or another cloud provider.
For a development house - this helps massively as it allows developers to continue building Mac and iOS apps on their macs - while having the ability to do the same - via Parallels - for Windows Phone (Windows), Android (Linux)*
*I'm aware that Android apps can be developed directly on a Mac, but some people choose to not do things that way - Parallels allows us to have that flexibility.
Another issue that was resolved was the ability to use Parallels with Vagrant to prep provisioning scripts ensure they are perfect, before pushing them out to Amazon, Azure or another cloud provider.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
If you're not sure about Parallels - then take advantage of the free trials on offer, I'm sure that once you've started using it - you will not begrudge paying the subscription and becoming a true licensed user.
The beauty of Parallels is that once its installed and configured, you can totally forget about it. In my opinion, when a piece of software can be forgotten about while providing the services it providers - that's when it has moved to perfection.
Don't take my word for it, don't believe the marketing hype, TRY it - take advantage of the free trial.
The beauty of Parallels is that once its installed and configured, you can totally forget about it. In my opinion, when a piece of software can be forgotten about while providing the services it providers - that's when it has moved to perfection.
Don't take my word for it, don't believe the marketing hype, TRY it - take advantage of the free trial.
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Great performance and features, though company is low brow
What do you like best?
Parallels has a pretty Mac-like experience and is well designed, intuitive. It has excellent performance above its competitors, especially in the GPU department.
A command line interface is a plus, and it doesn't suffer from some of the issues that persist in other solutions.
Pre-packaged solutions are fantastic: One can quickly auto-install Chrome OS or test versions of IE.
A command line interface is a plus, and it doesn't suffer from some of the issues that persist in other solutions.
Pre-packaged solutions are fantastic: One can quickly auto-install Chrome OS or test versions of IE.
What do you dislike?
Some defaults are annoying. I don't appreciate Parallels shoving Windows application shortcuts into my home dir or dock.
Historically, there were some issues with Parallels dispatcher agent.
More than anything, Parallels' developing company is... Ill mannered. Charging for infinite redownloads of the software is ridiculous, and they're a bit out of touch with the elegance quality developers desire.
Historically, there were some issues with Parallels dispatcher agent.
More than anything, Parallels' developing company is... Ill mannered. Charging for infinite redownloads of the software is ridiculous, and they're a bit out of touch with the elegance quality developers desire.
What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
We use Parallels primarily for testing web sites in various browsers and for creating virtual machines for development environments via Vagrant and Packer.
Parallels has givens us ease of use and performance within both of these domains.
Parallels has givens us ease of use and performance within both of these domains.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Jump on it.
Best commercial virtualization software on OS X
What do you like best?
Coherence mode and the ability to switch on and off headless mode on the fly.
What do you dislike?
The lack of detailed documentation for command line tools and sometimes inconsistent behavior compare with the GUI.
What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
Running various Linux and BSD os'es for development and test and running docker on a Mac.
Excellent for running windows on a mac
What do you like best?
the ability to interact between computers seamlessly on the same screen is unparalleled, no pun intended
What do you dislike?
sometimes the parallels desktop wouldn't run certain functions due to an error accessing the graphics card
What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
applications in our lab that only run on windows can now be accessed via our mac laptops
Parallels to the Rescue
What do you like best?
I like best about Parallels Desktop because of it's ease of use on providing Aliases on the Mac Desktop to quickly access Windows applications.
What do you dislike?
I dislike Parallels Desktop because you are still required to purchase a separate license of the Windows OS.
What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
Mac users now can access applications that only run on the Windows platform.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
I highly recommend Parallels Desktop as a way for Mac users to access Windows apps.
Virtualizes and integrates Windows seamlessly into your Mac.
What do you like best?
Allows you to run Windows and Mac apps side by side. The integration is great. Your Windows applications are essentially treated like they are a part of the Mac OS. Easy to move files around, launch programs, etc.
What do you dislike?
Unlike Wine or CrossOver, you do need a copy of the Microsoft OS. Also, you'll need a good bit of RAM, and since newer Macs cannot be upgraded, you'll need to plan your hardware purchases well if you're going to be running Parallels.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Great product, integration makes it very easy to use. Provided your computer is stuffed full of RAM and you don't mind having to buy a copy of Windows, I would recommend this over Wine or CrossOver for compatibility and usability.
Best Virtualization Software for your Mac
What do you like best?
Extremely clean and basic interface. It looks like an application built by Apple. Very easy to start up and install new VM's. Great customization settings and shared folders between your OSX and VM's.
What do you dislike?
Can run slow at times, but primarily due to requiring a lot of RAM.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Make sure you have a lot of RAM.
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