Mac Virtual Machine Update Runs Vista

Release candidates of Parallels Desktop for Mac and Parallels Workstation can be downloaded free of charge from the Herndon, Va.-based developer's Web site, the company said.

The update to Parallels Desktop for Mac includes support for the recently-released multi-processor Mac Pro tower equipped with 3.5GB of RAM, as well as support for the developer build of Mac OS X 10.5, code-named Leopard, that Apple debuted in August at its annual Worldwide Developer's Conference.

In addition, the new version will run beta and release candidate builds of Windows Vista in a virtual machine on any Intel-powered Mac. Parallels has come to the forefront of the Mac virtualization market this summer because Apple and analysts have touted Desktop's ability to run Windows and Mac OS X side-by-side on the new Intel Macs.

The final release of Desktop will come "in the next few weeks," Parallels said in a statement. The release candidate can be downloaded from here. New users can run the $79.99 program for 15 days free of charge, while current users can update for free.

Parallels Workstation, which runs any version of Windows, any Linux distribution, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, OS/2, eComStation, or DOS in a virtual machine on a computer powered by Windows or Linux, has also been updated. The release candidate of version 2.2 adds better support for Intel- and AMD-based hardware virtualization technologies, and like Desktop, lets users install Windows Vista preview builds in a virtual machine.

Parallels Workstation can be downloaded from here and run free of charge for 15 days. A single-system license costs $49.99.