lorin schultz said: Sign and vinyl design makers use CorelDraw. It's the front end for the cutters. I sent an engraver an Illustrator file and they couldn't use it without converting it to Corel format first.
Good point. That's pretty much where I've seen it too.
lorin schultz said: I was going through all my software to see which apps are 32 bit and will need to be updated or replaced. Whatever old version of Toast I have was one of them. I was about to buy an update when it occurred to me that the last time I burned a disc was so long ago I can't remember how long ago it actually was! When even us creative types aren't using Roxio's software, I can't imagine the future for it being very bright.
I've also been clinging to an Epson inkjet printer because it's able to print directly onto discs. I don't know why I bother, since it's been so long the ink cartridges must have dried up by now. Do the jets clog if left unused for literally years, or could it be resurrected with new cartridges, assuming I could even find them after all this time?
I'm starting to think I may not ever use that tall spindle of high-end Taiyo Yueden printable DVDs...
Same here. I still have a Lightscribe drive and a few discs around (donated the rest when we moved last). But, I doubt I'll ever use them. It's been years, too, since I last burned a disc. BUT!!! I think I need to plug that drive in one of these days and suck all the data off any old discs I do have around before they go bad. Thanks for the reminder.
I didn't find VMWare to be better last I used it, but that was several years ago, I guess. What makes it better than Parallels? (I'm curious, as I probably will have to buy one or the other in the next month or two, as I let my last Parallels subscription expire.) And, Virtual Box, while free, sadly doesn't seem in the running unless price is the only factor. Kind of like Pixelmator vs GIMP.
I didn't find VMWare to be better last I used it, but that was several years ago, I guess. What makes it better than Parallels? (I'm curious, as I probably will have to buy one or the other in the next month or two, as I let my last Parallels subscription expire.) And, Virtual Box, while free, sadly doesn't seem in the running unless price is the only factor. Kind of like Pixelmator vs GIMP.
VMware works out of the box with Linux as they have open source drivers included with the kernel, Parallels has their own drivers which need to be recompiled for each kernel and frequently won't build.
VMware also uses Metal for its virtualisation and DirectX support, which might have mattered if I played games in the VM.
I've also had to use some evil VPN software at customer sites, which for some reason refused to work on Windows running on Parallels but worked on Vmware.
I have to wonder whether this seemingly out-of-the-blue sale to Corel has anything to do with the expected move to ARM chips by Apple in their laptops and desktops. It seems quite likely that any of the virtualization solutions are not going to get away easy with a simple recompile to the new chipset if/when the time comes. Maybe they see the writing on the wall and decided to sell while there is still some presumed value in the software. Or perhaps, it’s just that revenues are down as fewer folks are buying the latest versions of virtualization sw and Parallels saw this as a way out.
I had no idea that Corel, CorelDraw, or WordPerfect still were around. Knew about WinZIP but didn't realize they owned it.
They still sell a boxed copy of their office suite with WordPerfect and Quattro Pro at Best Buy. I was looking at the box the other day. Apparently they cater WordPerfect to law firms and so it remains popular with lawyers. I used to really like the reveal codes feature.
Unbelievable.
I can't believe it (WordPerfect) is still alive. i have a distinct feeling I wrote a final year engineering project using WordPerfect... and printed it out on a dot matrix printer with that curiously satisfying perforated rip-off tractor feed margin paper. Jaysus.... 30 years ago or so.
I use CorelDraw daily and find it far better for my purposes than something like Illustrator for example. It's also works well with other programs so I'm not surprised by them picking up Parallels.
xyzzy01 said: VMware works out of the box with Linux as they have open source drivers included with the kernel, Parallels has their own drivers which need to be recompiled for each kernel and frequently won't build.
VMware also uses Metal for its virtualisation and DirectX support, which might have mattered if I played games in the VM.
I've also had to use some evil VPN software at customer sites, which for some reason refused to work on Windows running on Parallels but worked on Vmware.
Hmm, interesting. Thanks! I was under the impression Parallels had better GPU support, but maybe not. I'm going to be running the heavy stuff mostly in Bootcamp, but it would be nice to be able to run it in a VM, too, at times.
I have to wonder whether this seemingly out-of-the-blue sale to Corel has anything to do with the expected move to ARM chips by Apple in their laptops and desktops. It seems quite likely that any of the virtualization solutions are not going to get away easy with a simple recompile to the new chipset if/when the time comes. Maybe they see the writing on the wall and decided to sell while there is still some presumed value in the software. Or perhaps, it’s just that revenues are down as fewer folks are buying the latest versions of virtualization sw and Parallels saw this as a way out.
I suppose that's possible. I've been a bit unhappy with the costs associated with Parallels, especially since the move to subscription-only, but that's mainly because I haven't needed to use it frequently for the last few years. For people who use it a lot, it's probably a good deal.
Just because you (people commenting here about Corel) don’t use Corel’s products doesn’t mean that Corel is irrelevant.
Yeah, it's probably because we're mostly Mac users. Their products were quite popular and some of the best on the PC side of the fence for a long time.
I use Parallels at work and VMware at home. They are mostly the same now for the end user.
Parallels is much better in my work environment with their Business edition. It allows us in IT to deploy it easily, locked down (to prevent users from creating other unauthorized VMs), and for us to deploy VMs to our users pretty easily. Their deployment guide has every option and switch that allows you to build very custom installations and even "brand" the Help topics to your own internal documentation hosted on your web server(s). It's slick.
It also has a really nice web portal for business that allows you to see the machines that have it installed, their versions, when your user last used it, and other details about the host machines. You can also revoke licenses from machines via this portal which is useful if you allow deployment to personal Macs and a person leaves your organization. It is really polished for a central IT group to manage it.
cgWerks said: [...] Their products were quite popular and some of the best on the PC side of the fence for a long time.
Popular, yes. Good, no.
I was using Corel's version 5 suite when I switched to Adobe's version 3 and 4 products. The difference was staggering, especially on the raster side (Photoshop vs. Corel Paint). Photoshop's color handling, anti-aliasing, selection tools, and retouching tools were SOOO much better than Paint it was like they were from different planets. Draw was actually easier and more intuitive to use for vector work than Illustrator, but it was notoriously inaccurate. It was like it rounded every calculation to a decimal place or two, meaning objects often didn't wind up where they were supposed to or were sized incorrectly. Conversions between color spaces were a disaster, with the converted result often bearing no resemblance to the original.
I don't know if the gap has closed in the intervening 20 years, but at that time I was kicking myself for having bothered with Corel at all instead of just biting the bullet for Photoshop and Illustrator right away. I still brace myself for the inevitable CorelDraw issues whenever I send a project to a cutter or engraver.
cgWerks said: [...] Their products were quite popular and some of the best on the PC side of the fence for a long time.
Popular, yes. Good, no.
... It was like it rounded every calculation to a decimal place or two, meaning objects often didn't wind up where they were supposed to or were sized incorrectly. Conversions between color spaces were a disaster, with the converted result often bearing no resemblance to the original. ...
Heh, well I meant good in comparison to what a lot of people were using in the PC world.
Yeah, a lot of apps were like that though. I got used to using CAD-like apps pretty early on, and then missed the accuracy everywhere else. I'm trying to remember what the name of the DTP/CAD-like app I used on my Atari 1040ST in the late 80s. After that, I sought out that kind of stuff.
It's funny looking back now. I started working with an ID firm in the early-mid 90s who were using Corel Draw and AutoCAD on a project I took over (the 'CAD' aspect of it), and started early 3D solids modeling that would today be knowing as BIM. In a few days, I'm going to be learning Revit, which kind of looks like a deep (information-wise), but slightly gangly version of what I was using in the late-90s.
WordPerfect many, many years ago used to be the top word processing software on the market. Corel didn't kill it, they saved it. It would have died years ago if not for Corel buying it. Why did WordPerfect lose 90%+ of its market? Microsoft. That's why. For makers of PCs, Microsoft had a condition to being able to include a Windows license. The maker could not offer any other productivity suite other than Office on their computers. So, you bought a Dell PC in let's say 1996... as you went down the options, you could have added Word, Excel, etc.. but there was no option to add WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, etc. For most people, they just went with what was there... that's how Microsoft shoved Office up everyone's ass. WordPerfect was the first real word processor I learned to use- version 4.0 in 1987. I used it exclusively until 2012. When I finally switched from a PC to Mac, I started to use Word for more things. I STILL have WordPerfect X7 on my iMac with Parallels and it works just fine. In my opinion, WordPerfect is and always has been light years ahead of Word. Things like margin controls, reveal codes, etc. make it so much easier and more powerful. My list of address labels for holiday cards is still a WordPerfect file because trying to do labels in Word has always been a crap shoot. What Corel should do now, is offer every Parallels user the WordPerfect suite for some ridiculously low price like $15-20... even free. A lot people might discover I have known for at least 25 years- that WordPerfect is a better program than Word.
I had no idea that Corel, CorelDraw, or WordPerfect still were around. Knew about WinZIP but didn't realize they owned it.
Oh yeah, they're used all the time for screen printers and clothing printers. Corel Draw is still great software and in many respects better that Photoshop but they have a niche market just like WordPerfect. Why try and take on the big boys when you can make a tonne of money from your existing customers? That being said those customers don't update often as I found when I was working in IT. Trying to get Corel Draw 4 working on a Windows 7 machine (at the time Windows X was actually getting good) was a pain and in the end I found a workaround then told the guy he freaking needs to get off his butt and upgrade to actually fix the problem. The software's claimable as a business expense. For the sake of $200 (NZ) why wouldn't you?
Oh well, have to see what they do, and decide whether it's worth jumping to Fusion. I don't think VMWare are about to sell out to Oracle or anyone soon.
Neither VMWare Fusion nor VirtualBox come anywhere near close to the power and functionality of Parallels. For gaming for example Parallels blows away Fusion and VirtualBox doesn't even get a look in. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Fusion and VirtualBox are bad products as I feel they are great products but Parallels is streaks ahead in terms of functionality and use of macOS frameworks.
lowededwookie said: [...] Corel Draw is still great software and in many respects better that Photoshop
I know your point was about markets and not software capabilities, but for future reference, Draw and Photoshop are very different products. Draw is for vector-based art, while Photoshop works with raster/bitmap images. That means Draw compares to Illustrator, not Photoshop. Corel's answer to Photoshop is Paint.
lowededwookie said: Neither VMWare Fusion nor VirtualBox come anywhere near close to the power and functionality of Parallels. For gaming for example Parallels blows away Fusion and VirtualBox doesn't even get a look in. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Fusion and VirtualBox are bad products as I feel they are great products but Parallels is streaks ahead in terms of functionality and use of macOS frameworks.
They (VMWare vs Parallels) seem to approach certain things differently, which I suppose would make a difference depending on what you are doing. For example, since I'm hoping to run a CAD/3D app, I've been reading about their support of GPU/eGPU and each takes a different approach. There are debates raging on forums as to which is technically superior, or benefits what apps and situations more.
If anyone knows of a comprehensive comparison, I'd love to see one. I switched from VMWare to Parallels back at some point (more than a decade, I think) for certain features. But, I just haven't kept up on which is better for what things until recently. I don't think it's quite as simple as Parallels is way ahead though... or at least that's not the impression I've gotten as I've started to dig in again.
Comments
Corel bought a bunch of video/DVD creation software, most of which have become irrelevant.
Corels history is one of layoffs, and bouncing between being Private to being a Public company.
The next time you need to update Parallels ($$$) it might be time to jump ship.
Alternatives: VMWare Fusion (better anyway)
Virtual Box (free & open source)
Good point. That's pretty much where I've seen it too.
Same here. I still have a Lightscribe drive and a few discs around (donated the rest when we moved last). But, I doubt I'll ever use them. It's been years, too, since I last burned a disc. BUT!!! I think I need to plug that drive in one of these days and suck all the data off any old discs I do have around before they go bad. Thanks for the reminder.
I didn't find VMWare to be better last I used it, but that was several years ago, I guess. What makes it better than Parallels? (I'm curious, as I probably will have to buy one or the other in the next month or two, as I let my last Parallels subscription expire.)
And, Virtual Box, while free, sadly doesn't seem in the running unless price is the only factor. Kind of like Pixelmator vs GIMP.
VMware works out of the box with Linux as they have open source drivers included with the kernel, Parallels has their own drivers which need to be recompiled for each kernel and frequently won't build.
VMware also uses Metal for its virtualisation and DirectX support, which might have mattered if I played games in the VM.
I've also had to use some evil VPN software at customer sites, which for some reason refused to work on Windows running on Parallels but worked on Vmware.
Or perhaps, it’s just that revenues are down as fewer folks are buying the latest versions of virtualization sw and Parallels saw this as a way out.
I can't believe it (WordPerfect) is still alive.
i have a distinct feeling I wrote a final year engineering project using WordPerfect... and printed it out on a dot matrix printer with that curiously satisfying perforated rip-off tractor feed margin paper. Jaysus.... 30 years ago or so.
Check it out
https://www.wordperfect.com/en/product/office-suite/
$220!!!
Save $30.... bwahahaha.
Lawyers, eh. How embarrassing.
Now, where can I get a Mojave compatible version of Lotus 1-2-3?
I suppose that's possible. I've been a bit unhappy with the costs associated with Parallels, especially since the move to subscription-only, but that's mainly because I haven't needed to use it frequently for the last few years. For people who use it a lot, it's probably a good deal.
Yeah, it's probably because we're mostly Mac users. Their products were quite popular and some of the best on the PC side of the fence for a long time.
Parallels is much better in my work environment with their Business edition. It allows us in IT to deploy it easily, locked down (to prevent users from creating other unauthorized VMs), and for us to deploy VMs to our users pretty easily. Their deployment guide has every option and switch that allows you to build very custom installations and even "brand" the Help topics to your own internal documentation hosted on your web server(s). It's slick.
It also has a really nice web portal for business that allows you to see the machines that have it installed, their versions, when your user last used it, and other details about the host machines. You can also revoke licenses from machines via this portal which is useful if you allow deployment to personal Macs and a person leaves your organization. It is really polished for a central IT group to manage it.
I was using Corel's version 5 suite when I switched to Adobe's version 3 and 4 products. The difference was staggering, especially on the raster side (Photoshop vs. Corel Paint). Photoshop's color handling, anti-aliasing, selection tools, and retouching tools were SOOO much better than Paint it was like they were from different planets. Draw was actually easier and more intuitive to use for vector work than Illustrator, but it was notoriously inaccurate. It was like it rounded every calculation to a decimal place or two, meaning objects often didn't wind up where they were supposed to or were sized incorrectly. Conversions between color spaces were a disaster, with the converted result often bearing no resemblance to the original.
I don't know if the gap has closed in the intervening 20 years, but at that time I was kicking myself for having bothered with Corel at all instead of just biting the bullet for Photoshop and Illustrator right away. I still brace myself for the inevitable CorelDraw issues whenever I send a project to a cutter or engraver.
Yeah, a lot of apps were like that though. I got used to using CAD-like apps pretty early on, and then missed the accuracy everywhere else. I'm trying to remember what the name of the DTP/CAD-like app I used on my Atari 1040ST in the late 80s. After that, I sought out that kind of stuff.
It's funny looking back now. I started working with an ID firm in the early-mid 90s who were using Corel Draw and AutoCAD on a project I took over (the 'CAD' aspect of it), and started early 3D solids modeling that would today be knowing as BIM. In a few days, I'm going to be learning Revit, which kind of looks like a deep (information-wise), but slightly gangly version of what I was using in the late-90s.
Why did WordPerfect lose 90%+ of its market? Microsoft. That's why.
For makers of PCs, Microsoft had a condition to being able to include a Windows license. The maker could not offer any other productivity suite other than Office on their computers. So, you bought a Dell PC in let's say 1996... as you went down the options, you could have added Word, Excel, etc.. but there was no option to add WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, etc.
For most people, they just went with what was there... that's how Microsoft shoved Office up everyone's ass.
WordPerfect was the first real word processor I learned to use- version 4.0 in 1987. I used it exclusively until 2012. When I finally switched from a PC to Mac, I started to use Word for more things. I STILL have WordPerfect X7 on my iMac with Parallels and it works just fine.
In my opinion, WordPerfect is and always has been light years ahead of Word. Things like margin controls, reveal codes, etc. make it so much easier and more powerful. My list of address labels for holiday cards is still a WordPerfect file because trying to do labels in Word has always been a crap shoot.
What Corel should do now, is offer every Parallels user the WordPerfect suite for some ridiculously low price like $15-20... even free. A lot people might discover I have known for at least 25 years- that WordPerfect is a better program than Word.
Neither VMWare Fusion nor VirtualBox come anywhere near close to the power and functionality of Parallels. For gaming for example Parallels blows away Fusion and VirtualBox doesn't even get a look in. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Fusion and VirtualBox are bad products as I feel they are great products but Parallels is streaks ahead in terms of functionality and use of macOS frameworks.
If anyone knows of a comprehensive comparison, I'd love to see one. I switched from VMWare to Parallels back at some point (more than a decade, I think) for certain features. But, I just haven't kept up on which is better for what things until recently. I don't think it's quite as simple as Parallels is way ahead though... or at least that's not the impression I've gotten as I've started to dig in again.