For Mac users

[grahamw]

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/

$80 for a Virtual machine desktop package for Mac, which allows you to
run Windows within a mac application window. it DOES support the Garmin
units on USB.

The only question left is, do you have a valid Windows licence? ;)

Regards

[Wolfgang]

Are you using it? I love my upgraded MAC MINI but still have to use a windows laptop for some applications that don't run on MAC, like like my inter-company site.


Thanks for any info you may have.

[nightcrawler921]

I prefer this one http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

It integrates with Boot Camp as well. Seems to run flawlessly so far.

[Cycle_Pilot]

You are correct in guessing that you have to have a valid copy of Windows to use Parallels. I use it and it works fine with the NavIII. Parallels works great for running any Windows app. I have a friend who uses it for access to his company exchange service.

[Bobnoxous]

I use parallels on my macbook pro (intel processor) to run XP. It generally works pretty well. I have used vmware, but I didn't think it ran on OS X. I haven't looked in a while, though.

Parallels simulates the Hw, so windows runs on the simulated Hw, not your real hw. Hence, Hw support can be an issue for a virtual machine.

USB devices can be a problem. It's good to hear the Garmin units are supported. I was trying to do some Sw development for a microcontroller, and it had a USB debugger which crashed Parallels and OS X. But generally, if it's a common USB device it will probably work. Proprietary USB devices, like said debugger, probably will not. They would each need to be ported to run in the Parallels environment.

For those times when you need a USB device that doesn't play well with parallels, you can use bootcamp to boot directly into windows. However, bootcamp has its own limitations. It must be Vista or XP with service pack 2, it must be bootable, and it cannot be an upgrade disk. I don't know why bootcamp insists on this, but being as I've only upgraded windows over the years, never buying a completely new copy, I didn't have a non-upgrade version of windows, and I wasn't about to go buy a non-upgrade version of Vista and all its problems. So, I found an old machine I wasn't using and put windows on it. I almost never use windows anyways.

My 2 cents worth. Maybe it'll help someone in deciding what would best work for them.

[eljeffe]

Bob,

Parallels does not simulate the HW. It uses virtualization technology that allows you direct access to all the hardware components. Since the new macs us the same components as most PCs, VMWare and Parallels can perform virtualization at the HW level, rather than the old Virtual PC that ran on the G3/G4 processors on the older Macs.

USB support for Garmin had nothing to do with Parallels (or VMWare), USB support for pretty much all devices is already there as part of the HW support as long as the guest operating system (XP, Vista, or whichever flavor of Linux you prefer) supports it.

[Bobnoxous]

Hi Jeff. Thanks for the clarification. Here's how I think it works. Tell me if I'm wrong. I admit I've reached the limits of my knowledge on this.

Your virtual OS cannot get direct access to the Hw the way it normally does, by using a windows driver, because the Hw is already being used by OS X. There's a "wrapper" provided by parallels (or vmware) that gives the guest OS access to the Hw through the native OS.

For example, OS X is accessing the network card through an OS X driver. Windows, running in parallels, will access it through a parallels driver, not a windows driver. This parallels driver passes the request onto the OS X driver. In the end, the requests do have to get to the actual hw, but there's an intermediate layer so that the two OS's don't fight over the Hw. At least that's how I think it works.

Parallels has created "wrappers" (my term, parallels calls it "virtualization technology") for most common drivers, but I don't think the guest OS ever uses its native drivers. They would contend with the main OS. But, my USB debugger did crash while trying to load a windows driver in the virtual machine. If my previous statement is true, that was a silly thing to try and do. Frankly, I'm not sure. I've exceeded my knowledge in this area. Maybe you can use actual Windows drives in the virtual machine, but I'm not sure how parallels would intercept the hw access, which I would think it would need to.

So, I think common devices, or devices that use a standard interface, will work, but proprietary, uncommon things, like the USB driver for my debugger, often will not. It certainly did not in my case.

As for the virtualization being done in Hw, I think there are 2 issues.

1: Some of this is marketing speak. The hw is the same, so the wrappers are much simpler to manage, and there's a lot less overhead, but you still need something.

2. There is also this Hw layer called a hypervisor that is supposed to help virtualization run faster. It's hardware that I think helps how threads are managed, making a significant performance increase, but this is a different issue than the drivers.

Disclaimer:
All the opinions (and they are opinions) expressed above are the sole opinions of the writer, and BMW Luxury Touring is responsible, or probably even slightly interested, in said opinions. Now back to your regularly scheduled motorcycling forum.

[grahamw]

Bob

have a look on google for slipstreaming XP and it will guide you through creating a new install disk incorporating SP2 - if you can be bothered ;-/

I am going to load boot camp then VMware on to my sons Mac mini later this week so if you hear any screams of fustration from the west..........

[BTSOOM]

I have found PARALLELS support to be rotten -- 29.95 just for the privelage ofspeaking to a rep. My rep was tired an not intested i helping -- further, my NEW copy of XP was damaged and Amazon told me to pound sand since it was OPENED!! DUH!!!! So I had to buy VISTA HOME -- seems to be ok on PARALLELS -- but just try to get an upgrade from PARALLELS for thyeir OS -- another convoluted process -- OK, done venting.

[eljeffe]

I've been using Parallels since the beta version and have had nothing but good experiences with Parallels. 3 upgrades, and I the process was as simple as clicking a link.