Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The truth is, Parallels does a good enough job running many applications that you may just think this program is great. If your programs DO work under Parallels, you should consider yourself as lucky as a lottery winner. If anything DOESN'T work in Parallels Desktop, you just bought a ticket to trouble. The first step in the "support dance" is to contact them with your problem. They provide email support, so you'll get a reply asking for more detail. You will send the detail and nothing further will come back. Then, in a few days, they'll send an email asking if it's OK to close the support request. Close it? You just opened it and nothing has been done! You will convey this in a pithy email. Another day goes by, then a response with some boilerplate like "how to install the software" or some other useless FAQ. You will reply with the original problem, in as much detail as you can manange. Anther day or two, then a response asking for more clarification. You clarify. Another day then EUREKA! They have duplicated the problem and now they're handing it off to the technical team! But don't uncork the champagne yet.... A few weeks go by. You send a message inquiring about the issue. A polite reply saying their technical team is working on it and they have no idea when a fix will be ready. A few more weeks go by. Wash, rinse, and repeat. Then, a new fixpack is ready! You try to still your heart as you download the 85M install file and apply it to your defective system. Breathlessly you fire up the virtual machine and try to run the broken program. Disappointment creeps back when you realize the fix was not implemented in the new fixpack. Back to the emails. Loop again. And again. And again. It seems like this will go on endlessly -- more fixpacks to try, more disappointment. But just when it seems there is no end in sight -- a new VERSION of Parallels. Do you know what a new VERSION means? YOU GET TO BUY IT AGAIN! That's right, you've waited patiently so long that your version 4 has been replaced by version 5, and you are no longer able to obtain any more fixpacks because your product is now DEAD. Thanks for playing Parallels roulette. Oh, and don't bother asking Parallels for a free version upgrade just because they never fixed your problem. That falls on deaf ears. But then you google "virtualbox" and the world looks a little brighter...