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1 "correct" answer available (10 pts) 2 "helpful" answers available (6 pts)
1 2 Previous Next 18 Replies Last post: Feb 17, 2009 10:44 AM by Suthnautr   Go to original post
Click to view joatamon's profile Novice 8 posts since
Oct 29, 2008

I wouldn't be one of them.

I've run Parallels on my MacBook Pro for a year and a half with excellent results. I had a couple of minor glitches when upgrading to version 3, but I quickly got an answer. Whenever I contacted Parallels support I soon got an answer from someone who had actually read and understood my original question. Far too many first line support people will just cut and paste some boilerplate in order to keep their response time statistics looking good, but I didn't encounter that with Parallels support. I haven't used them in 6 months or more, so maybe they've gone to hell since then. It happens in this business.

When I got my Mac Pro, I decided to give VMware a try because of the favorable comments I'd read about it. I wasn't disappointed. It seemed faster and more stable than Parallels, though not as "feature rich". It isn't missing any features I can't live without. Getting rid of my old Dell desktop was a true pleasure.

The only concern I had was that I couldn't find any way to get support except via the forums unless I was willing to pay for it. I have no problem paying for training and features (or for my own ignorance or stupidity), but it seems a bit unfair to me to have to pay a vendor to find their own bugs, but maybe that's just me...

Anyhow, now we've got 2.0 (OK, I also tried to upgrade to 2.0.1 with no improvement). My VMs are almost useless. Parallels is looking better and better.

Click to view Suthnautr's profile Lurker 1 posts since
Feb 17, 2009

I would expect answers, real answers. I work for an office and I perform IT support. One of the office managers bought a Mac against my advice, and can only run his eClinicalworks software on windows Vista Office or XP Pro. I advised him to get Parallels, but again, he didn't take my advice and got VMWare Fusion 2 instead.

After installing Fusion 2 he installed windows - then he installed MS Office for Mac (why he didn't just install office on the virtual Windows machine I have NO idea)

I expect to get an answer from the knowledge base on getting Internet Explorer in Windows to work. I expect to get an answer as to how to find his network drives in Windows XP. He already paid for it - and tech support via telephone says we don't have that support - only email support and only free for 30 days.

What do you expect for $80? Well, let's see - Hostmonster.com my hosting company costs me less than $80 a year for unlimited voice, email & live chat support, 24 / 7 / 365. They don't just copy a bazillion copies of disks and sell them, they actually have to be there on staff all day working on servers, upgrading systems, making scheduled hardware upgrades and changes - monitoring systems etc. How do THEY do it for so little with so many working, hosting close to a half a billion sites? VMWare only has programmers working, making versions of software and then sending out disk copies to all major outlets.

I searched the product support database and asked two questions: Install IE and Configure Network Neighborhood - no answers for XP using VMWare Fusion 2. that sucks.

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