For work, Excel on Windows has the capability to allow me to write scripts in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA); for reasons I don not understand, these advanced libraries are simply not available for the Mac community. So, while my Excel workbooks have ~60,000 lines of VBA to allow it to link into the corporate database and dateline quality assessment info, I cannot do the same thing with my MSFT Office license for Mac. So, I have 2 different licenses.
Now, I have no choice but have multiple computers at home. Because programs that USED TO work flawlessly, no longer function at all.
Doesn’t ARM Windows support MS Office+VBA? If not, & MS are ditching VBA, it looks like your 60,000 line code investment is at risk. Sounds like a huge hack anyway, why not write M1 native software to integrate directly with the other systems?
So let's say I have an M1 Mac with Parallels 16.5 and Windows 10 ARM. Will Windows programs that use the regular Windows 10 for Intel (like Quicken for Windows) work...or do those programs need to be written for Windows for ARM.
The preview version of Windows on ARM emulates Intel binaries just like Rosetta does.
Yes it is! It has compatibility with x86 and now x64 applications. So a developer can run regular Visual Studio in it. Not everything works, but it works pretty close to regular windows.
So if I want to use any of these OSs? Parallels seems to have lost what it made it great and lost me as a customer. I have lots of old files that only run on old software. Looks like I have to keep an old intel mac too. Very disappointed.
Supported Guest Operating Systems (Mac with Intel processors):
Windows 10 (recommended)
Windows 8.1
Windows 8
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows 7 (SP0-SP1)
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP0-SP2)
Windows Vista Home, Business, Ultimate and Enterprise (SP0-SP2)
I've An old copy of VMWare (my old 2011 MBP - couldn't upgrade to latest). Holding off on Parallels for my new M1 MBP until (if) it supports Windows x64, and can import VMWare images.
I've An old copy of VMWare (my old 2011 MBP - couldn't upgrade to latest). Holding off on Parallels for my new M1 MBP until (if) it supports Windows x64, and can import VMWare images.
or if VMWare releases a compatible version before then. Lets hope.
So, basically Parallels remains a waste of money for anyone who bought an M1 Mac.
Rehash MY user case; which is probably a significant number of user cases. Why did I buy Parallels? Why pay $$ for this program?
So, I can have the CAPABILITY to boot, and run WindowsXP, Windows 7 and Windows10 disk images, and either run programs on my Mac that are not available outside of the Windows environment, so I can play old games I purchased before I switched to the Apple ecosystem, and so I can play more games (emulation mode, which is surprisingly good) on my Mac, and play online with my friends who use PC games. Open Parallels, run any version of Windows I chose, launch Steam and play online games with my friends (games that are not available on the Mac.
For work, Excel on Windows has the capability to allow me to write scripts in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA); for reasons I don not understand, these advanced libraries are simply not available for the Mac community. So, while my Excel workbooks have ~60,000 lines of VBA to allow it to link into the corporate database and dateline quality assessment info, I cannot do the same thing with my MSFT Office license for Mac. So, I have 2 different licenses.
Now, I have no choice but have multiple computers at home. Because programs that USED TO work flawlessly, no longer function at all.
I understand your "home" use cases, which should be supported with the free version of VMWare Fusion Player on your Intel Mac.
However, I don't understand the "for work" use cases unless you are using your personal home computer to do work. That is a recipe for disaster. Even if you work for yourself why would you be commingling your personal computing needs with your business, work, corporate data, and potential exposure of company intellectual property (like those 60,000 lines of VB code) or corporate data from your home computer?
Yes, I know this isn't a technical concern per se, but you would actually be much better served by having a dedicated work machine, which in your case would probably be a Windows box of some sort. I've always done work from home and on the road, but always using a work provided machine (with a corporate provided VPN) or by remotely accessing a work computer from home using Remote Desktop. Simply having a byte of corporate IP sitting on my personal computer is sufficient grounds for termination, no questions asked. If you're self employed, keeping your personal and work related resources separate makes it easier for tax purposes, depreciation, etc.
Just saying ... having two computers may actually be a good thing in your particular case, especially if it prevents you from a potential personal-work commingling disaster.
So, basically Parallels remains a waste of money for anyone who bought an M1 Mac.
Rehash MY user case; which is probably a significant number of user cases. Why did I buy Parallels? Why pay $$ for this program?
So, I can have the CAPABILITY to boot, and run WindowsXP, Windows 7 and Windows10 disk images, and either run programs on my Mac that are not available outside of the Windows environment, so I can play old games I purchased before I switched to the Apple ecosystem, and so I can play more games (emulation mode, which is surprisingly good) on my Mac, and play online with my friends who use PC games. Open Parallels, run any version of Windows I chose, launch Steam and play online games with my friends (games that are not available on the Mac.
For work, Excel on Windows has the capability to allow me to write scripts in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA); for reasons I don not understand, these advanced libraries are simply not available for the Mac community. So, while my Excel workbooks have ~60,000 lines of VBA to allow it to link into the corporate database and dateline quality assessment info, I cannot do the same thing with my MSFT Office license for Mac. So, I have 2 different licenses.
Now, I have no choice but have multiple computers at home. Because programs that USED TO work flawlessly, no longer function at all.
Buying an M1 Mac isn't a choice?
It obviously WONT be, as soon as Apple can finish their transition.
So if I want to use any of these OSs? Parallels seems to have lost what it made it great and lost me as a customer. I have lots of old files that only run on old software. Looks like I have to keep an old intel mac too. Very disappointed.
Supported Guest Operating Systems (Mac with Intel processors):
Windows 10 (recommended)
Windows 8.1
Windows 8
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows 7 (SP0-SP1)
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP0-SP2)
Windows Vista Home, Business, Ultimate and Enterprise (SP0-SP2)
Windows Server 2003 R2 (SP0-SP2)
Windows XP (SP0-SP3)
Windows 2000 Professional SP4
Windows 2000 Server SP4
Boot2Docker
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8,7 and 6
CentOS Linux 8, 7, 6
Fedora Linux 33, 32, 31
Ubuntu 20.10, 20.04, 19.04, 18.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS
Debian GNU/Linux 10, 9
Suse Linux Enterprise 15
OpenSUSE Linux 15.2, 15.1, 15
Linux Mint 20, 19, 18
Kali 2020.2, 2019, 2018
Elementary OS 5
Manjaro 18
Mageia 7
Gentoo Linux **
Solaris 11, 10 **
openBSD 6 **
FreeBSD 12, 11 **
openVZ 7
eComStation 2, 1.2 **
ReactOS 0.4 **
Android OS *
macOS Big Sur 11.0
macOS Catalina 10.15
macOS Mojave 10.14.x
macOS High Sierra 10.13.x
macOS Sierra 10.12.x
OS X El Capitan 10.11.x
OS X Yosemite 10.10.x
OS X Mavericks 10.9.x
OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.x
OS X Lion 10.7.x
OS X Lion Server 10.7.x
Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server 10.6.x
Mac OS X Leopard Server 10.5.x
and many more...
Still using solid rubber tires or wagon wheels on your car, too? But seriously, I have 'old files' going back to the '80s, possibly the '70s. Nothing keeps me from using them or updating them.
Instead of posting a dubious laundry list of OSes (many of which are no longer supported by their vendors, so I fail to see how this is Parallels problem), maybe you should post the ones that are critical to you and see if anyone will help you? Otherwise, this is whole post is basically FUD. Any time something is still useful, folks find a way to update or emulate so that it still runs, regardless of architecture changes. If that weren't the case, hardware would never change (or it would be saddled with business destroying legacy cruft ... cough ... cough ...).
So, basically Parallels remains a waste of money for anyone who bought an M1 Mac.
Rehash MY user case; which is probably a significant number of user cases. Why did I buy Parallels? Why pay $$ for this program?
So, I can have the CAPABILITY to boot, and run WindowsXP, Windows 7 and Windows10 disk images, and either run programs on my Mac that are not available outside of the Windows environment, so I can play old games I purchased before I switched to the Apple ecosystem, and so I can play more games (emulation mode, which is surprisingly good) on my Mac, and play online with my friends who use PC games. Open Parallels, run any version of Windows I chose, launch Steam and play online games with my friends (games that are not available on the Mac.
For work, Excel on Windows has the capability to allow me to write scripts in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA); for reasons I don not understand, these advanced libraries are simply not available for the Mac community. So, while my Excel workbooks have ~60,000 lines of VBA to allow it to link into the corporate database and dateline quality assessment info, I cannot do the same thing with my MSFT Office license for Mac. So, I have 2 different licenses.
Now, I have no choice but have multiple computers at home. Because programs that USED TO work flawlessly, no longer function at all.
"Because programs that USED TO work flawlessly..." that's clearly a gross exaggeration and kinda makes the rest of your statement questionable. Especially when mentioning WinXP.
So here's a thing ... just a guess ... but I imagine Parallels will be supporting their Intel version for quite awhile yet. And Apple isn't done releasing Intel based Macs. And I'm pretty sure that your current machine probably still has quite a bit of life left in it. Long enough that Microsoft might actually get it's act together and produce a fully capable ARM version of Windows, seeing as how they've had plenty of time to do that...
As for the Excel scripts, there could be any number of issues here. But seeing as how your company standardized on products from a company that's been openly hostile interoperability and has been pro customer lock-in for longer, I really have no sympathy. Covert to Xojo, or something. Maybe ask for help, since you freely admit to not understanding what the issues are. Or get your lazy devs understand that modern workplaces are heterogenous when it comes to devices.
Games ... jfc ... buy a friggin' game machine. Seriously, dude.
And last, but not least, under no circumstances should you be mixing access to corporate data with your personal profile/software/anything. If you're putting anything personal on a company machine ... I'd fire your ass. By mixing these areas, you increase the likelihood of a breach exponentially. And legally, your company can confiscate your machine, whether you bought it or not. You have their property on it. Think of this like money. You never, ever mix personal and business funds, because it puts you in massive legal and financial jeopardy (look up 'piercing the corporate veil'). This doesn't even delve into the privacy concerns of mixing your private computing needs with your job's.
Which begs another question: how is it that you have access to such sensitive corporate data, but they don't issue you a work machine or compensate you for Parallels as a business expense? There's way too much that's shady and questionable about some of what you're describing.
I wonder what VMWare is up to and if they will provide support for M1?
Just announced: Dell is spinning out VMware. Might not mean anything but VMware seems to be bouncing all over the place so not sure what's going to happen. VMware is hosted on other operating systems, it's not really a big seller on macOS. The majority of VMware products don't even work on macOS so I'm sure it will be a long wait although it might be shorter if ARM destroys Intel thereby destroying X86. If Microsoft wants its software only to run on X86 platforms then it will continue to lose customers.
For work, Excel on Windows has the capability to allow me to write scripts in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA); for reasons I don not understand, these advanced libraries are simply not available for the Mac community. So, while my Excel workbooks have ~60,000 lines of VBA to allow it to link into the corporate database and dateline quality assessment info, I cannot do the same thing with my MSFT Office license for Mac. So, I have 2 different licenses.
Now, I have no choice but have multiple computers at home. Because programs that USED TO work flawlessly, no longer function at all.
Doesn’t ARM Windows support MS Office+VBA? If not, & MS are ditching VBA, it looks like your 60,000 line code investment is at risk. Sounds like a huge hack anyway, why not write M1 native software to integrate directly with the other systems?
Not everybody has the resources to rewrite that amount of code, although I agree that this sounds like a good candidate for completely changing the workflow to adhere to modern standards for data access. ODBC is nearing the end of its life and there are better ways to handle secure data communication - I'm not saying ODBC doesn't still work, or isn't still viable, but it was designed in an era when securing your communications was viewed as mostly unnecessary and... well, times have changed.
IIRC, VBA was part of Office for Mac until around 2004 when they discovered the huge amount of work required to get it operating under OS X and decided to only support AppleScript for that release. MS then tried including VBA in a later release (2008?) but I'm guessing it didn't end up used much - the corporate culture at the time was still focussed on Windows everywhere, so they probably thought that limiting the Mac version in this way would prevent people from jumping ship.
Nowadays the new hotness in MS Office automation (and pretty much everything else too) is JavaScript, and that definitely has cross-platform support. It might be worth contacting your work IT department/staff to see if you need to update your approach.
I’m pretty sure I’m totally mixing everything, but since the PowerPC was also a RISC processor. Does it mean we could now virtualize old Mac OS 9 on ARM based Parallel?
No, PPC is not the same instruction set as ARM, but the architectures are more similar than x86 is to ARM or ASi
One of the first things I did on my M1 Mini was copy SheepShaver over onto it as well as my System 9.04 "disk" I was using on my Intel iMac. It runs fine in Rosetta 2 on the M1 Mini and the people working on SheepShaver are working on a native version of it. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to run the original version of LodeRunner...
If Parallels will do x86/x64isa VMs; it would likely occur this way imho.
Parallels 17 will support x86/x64isa and only support it on next-gen and higher; continuing ARM based improvements on all ASi.
Rationale:
Know Parallels marketing. Only 16.5? 17 is not far behind and can get a new set of users and renewals offering x86/x64isa support as well as the next set of speed bumps. The next release of ASi is supposed to much quicker. Parallels should be able to get x86/x64isa emulated at decent performance on the next-gen chip.
Our needs are not going anywhere and there are no other offerings. Parallels doesn't need to release a x86/x64isa emulation version; yet. We wanted one yesterday. But right now; Parallels can take their time and hopefully provide a WOW factor worthy of ASi native software and the next gen ASi. 16.5 already offers a decent improvement according to the article.
I might be one generation of software and ASi off, or Parallels may brand the x86/x64isa features under the Pro moniker and offer it on the higher cost software offerings.. But this makes sense to me.
So if I want to use any of these OSs? Parallels seems to have lost what it made it great and lost me as a customer. I have lots of old files that only run on old software. Looks like I have to keep an old intel mac too. Very disappointed.
Supported Guest Operating Systems (Mac with Intel processors):
Windows 10 (recommended)
Windows 8.1
Windows 8
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows 7 (SP0-SP1)
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP0-SP2)
Windows Vista Home, Business, Ultimate and Enterprise (SP0-SP2)
Windows Server 2003 R2 (SP0-SP2)
Windows XP (SP0-SP3)
Windows 2000 Professional SP4
Windows 2000 Server SP4
Boot2Docker
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8,7 and 6
CentOS Linux 8, 7, 6
Fedora Linux 33, 32, 31
Ubuntu 20.10, 20.04, 19.04, 18.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS
Debian GNU/Linux 10, 9
Suse Linux Enterprise 15
OpenSUSE Linux 15.2, 15.1, 15
Linux Mint 20, 19, 18
Kali 2020.2, 2019, 2018
Elementary OS 5
Manjaro 18
Mageia 7
Gentoo Linux **
Solaris 11, 10 **
openBSD 6 **
FreeBSD 12, 11 **
openVZ 7
eComStation 2, 1.2 **
ReactOS 0.4 **
Android OS *
macOS Big Sur 11.0
macOS Catalina 10.15
macOS Mojave 10.14.x
macOS High Sierra 10.13.x
macOS Sierra 10.12.x
OS X El Capitan 10.11.x
OS X Yosemite 10.10.x
OS X Mavericks 10.9.x
OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.x
OS X Lion 10.7.x
OS X Lion Server 10.7.x
Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server 10.6.x
Mac OS X Leopard Server 10.5.x
and many more...
Still using solid rubber tires or wagon wheels on your car, too? But seriously, I have 'old files' going back to the '80s, possibly the '70s. Nothing keeps me from using them or updating them.
Instead of posting a dubious laundry list of OSes (many of which are no longer supported by their vendors, so I fail to see how this is Parallels problem), maybe you should post the ones that are critical to you and see if anyone will help you? Otherwise, this is whole post is basically FUD. Any time something is still useful, folks find a way to update or emulate so that it still runs, regardless of architecture changes. If that weren't the case, hardware would never change (or it would be saddled with business destroying legacy cruft ... cough ... cough ...).
I don't think you understand what FUD is. If anything, his post may have created the "D" with some forum viewers, but I don't think it had anything to do with Fear or Uncertainty. It was actually quite factual.
So, basically Parallels remains a waste of money for anyone who bought an M1 Mac.
Rehash MY user case; which is probably a significant number of user cases. Why did I buy Parallels? Why pay $$ for this program?
So, I can have the CAPABILITY to boot, and run WindowsXP, Windows 7 and Windows10 disk images, and either run programs on my Mac that are not available outside of the Windows environment, so I can play old games I purchased before I switched to the Apple ecosystem, and so I can play more games (emulation mode, which is surprisingly good) on my Mac, and play online with my friends who use PC games. Open Parallels, run any version of Windows I chose, launch Steam and play online games with my friends (games that are not available on the Mac.
For work, Excel on Windows has the capability to allow me to write scripts in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA); for reasons I don not understand, these advanced libraries are simply not available for the Mac community. So, while my Excel workbooks have ~60,000 lines of VBA to allow it to link into the corporate database and dateline quality assessment info, I cannot do the same thing with my MSFT Office license for Mac. So, I have 2 different licenses.
Now, I have no choice but have multiple computers at home. Because programs that USED TO work flawlessly, no longer function at all.
Buying an M1 Mac isn't a choice?
Probably depends on how long you think Apple will support its intel-based hardware.
So if I want to use any of these OSs? Parallels seems to have lost what it made it great and lost me as a customer. I have lots of old files that only run on old software. Looks like I have to keep an old intel mac too. Very disappointed.
Supported Guest Operating Systems (Mac with Intel processors):
You don't seem to understand anything about the transition from Intel to ARM I guess? Maybe read up about that first.
So, basically Parallels remains a waste of money for anyone who bought an M1 Mac.
Rehash MY user case; which is probably a significant number of user cases. Why did I buy Parallels? Why pay $$ for this program?
So, I can have the CAPABILITY to boot, and run WindowsXP, Windows 7 and Windows10 disk images, and either run programs on my Mac that are not available outside of the Windows environment, so I can play old games I purchased before I switched to the Apple ecosystem, and so I can play more games (emulation mode, which is surprisingly good) on my Mac, and play online with my friends who use PC games. Open Parallels, run any version of Windows I chose, launch Steam and play online games with my friends (games that are not available on the Mac.
For work, Excel on Windows has the capability to allow me to write scripts in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA); for reasons I don not understand, these advanced libraries are simply not available for the Mac community. So, while my Excel workbooks have ~60,000 lines of VBA to allow it to link into the corporate database and dateline quality assessment info, I cannot do the same thing with my MSFT Office license for Mac. So, I have 2 different licenses.
Now, I have no choice but have multiple computers at home. Because programs that USED TO work flawlessly, no longer function at all.
And at least for now, until (or if ever) x86 support is added, this is the biggest reason going forward against buying an M1 Mac for many. And likely to be the biggest reason why people are less likely to switch from a PC, they lost the safety net of being able to use Windows. Along with myself I have friends who have Macs now, but have no idea what they're going to do when they need a new computer, as they need Windows. Very few people are going to buy two computers just so they can use macOS, they'll simply buy the computer that works best with the rest of the world; namely a Windows PC.
It would be interesting to see the sales numbers of Intel Macbooks vs M1 Macbooks, as far as I know that's not broken out, but sales of Macbooks are up, apparently. It could be people buying new Intel ones as much as M1 ones, to retain compatibility. I would pay a fair bit more to have a desktop Mac with an Intel and M1 CPU in, much like the Macs of yore. But I very much doubt that will happen.
Comments
Supported Guest Operating Systems (Mac with Intel processors):
or if VMWare releases a compatible version before then. Lets hope.
Instead of posting a dubious laundry list of OSes (many of which are no longer supported by their vendors, so I fail to see how this is Parallels problem), maybe you should post the ones that are critical to you and see if anyone will help you? Otherwise, this is whole post is basically FUD. Any time something is still useful, folks find a way to update or emulate so that it still runs, regardless of architecture changes. If that weren't the case, hardware would never change (or it would be saddled with business destroying legacy cruft ... cough ... cough ...).
So here's a thing ... just a guess ... but I imagine Parallels will be supporting their Intel version for quite awhile yet. And Apple isn't done releasing Intel based Macs. And I'm pretty sure that your current machine probably still has quite a bit of life left in it. Long enough that Microsoft might actually get it's act together and produce a fully capable ARM version of Windows, seeing as how they've had plenty of time to do that...
As for the Excel scripts, there could be any number of issues here. But seeing as how your company standardized on products from a company that's been openly hostile interoperability and has been pro customer lock-in for longer, I really have no sympathy. Covert to Xojo, or something. Maybe ask for help, since you freely admit to not understanding what the issues are. Or get your lazy devs understand that modern workplaces are heterogenous when it comes to devices.
Games ... jfc ... buy a friggin' game machine. Seriously, dude.
And last, but not least, under no circumstances should you be mixing access to corporate data with your personal profile/software/anything. If you're putting anything personal on a company machine ... I'd fire your ass. By mixing these areas, you increase the likelihood of a breach exponentially. And legally, your company can confiscate your machine, whether you bought it or not. You have their property on it. Think of this like money. You never, ever mix personal and business funds, because it puts you in massive legal and financial jeopardy (look up 'piercing the corporate veil'). This doesn't even delve into the privacy concerns of mixing your private computing needs with your job's.
Which begs another question: how is it that you have access to such sensitive corporate data, but they don't issue you a work machine or compensate you for Parallels as a business expense? There's way too much that's shady and questionable about some of what you're describing.
I'd say this is just more FUD.
IIRC, VBA was part of Office for Mac until around 2004 when they discovered the huge amount of work required to get it operating under OS X and decided to only support AppleScript for that release. MS then tried including VBA in a later release (2008?) but I'm guessing it didn't end up used much - the corporate culture at the time was still focussed on Windows everywhere, so they probably thought that limiting the Mac version in this way would prevent people from jumping ship.
Nowadays the new hotness in MS Office automation (and pretty much everything else too) is JavaScript, and that definitely has cross-platform support. It might be worth contacting your work IT department/staff to see if you need to update your approach.
Parallels 17 will support x86/x64isa and only support it on next-gen and higher; continuing ARM based improvements on all ASi.
Rationale:
Know Parallels marketing. Only 16.5? 17 is not far behind and can get a new set of users and renewals offering x86/x64isa support as well as the next set of speed bumps. The next release of ASi is supposed to much quicker. Parallels should be able to get x86/x64isa emulated at decent performance on the next-gen chip.
Our needs are not going anywhere and there are no other offerings. Parallels doesn't need to release a x86/x64isa emulation version; yet. We wanted one yesterday. But right now; Parallels can take their time and hopefully provide a WOW factor worthy of ASi native software and the next gen ASi. 16.5 already offers a decent improvement according to the article.
I might be one generation of software and ASi off, or Parallels may brand the x86/x64isa features under the Pro moniker and offer it on the higher cost software offerings.. But this makes sense to me.
It would be interesting to see the sales numbers of Intel Macbooks vs M1 Macbooks, as far as I know that's not broken out, but sales of Macbooks are up, apparently. It could be people buying new Intel ones as much as M1 ones, to retain compatibility. I would pay a fair bit more to have a desktop Mac with an Intel and M1 CPU in, much like the Macs of yore. But I very much doubt that will happen.