Parallels Update Installs Unrelated Daemon Without Permission 170
Calibax writes "Parallels recently released version 9 of Parallels Desktop, their popular hypervisor application for Mac. They also released a new product named Parallels Access that offers access to Windows applications from an iPad for $80 per year. Access has received less than stellar reviews. When a user upgrades Parallels Desktop, he is asked if he wants a free six-month subscription to Parallels Access. Even if he says no, the product is installed on his system and the application is started each time the system is rebooted. It is installed with ancillary files scattered around several directories in the system and Parallels has not supplied an uninstaller or listed the steps to fully uninstall the application, despite a number of requests. In other words, Parallels has decided it's a good idea to silently install a difficult to remove daemon application on the system, even if the user has explicitly stated they do not want it. They have not provided an uninstaller or a list of files installed or instructions on how to remove the application files. These are scattered to at least four Mac OS X OS system level directories."
Good to know (Score:5, Informative)
remote access (Score:5, Informative)
The most important part: what this daemon does is allowing remove access to the computer, through Parallels' servers, using closed source code on both sides. Let's see, is there anything nefarious possible?
Re: Macintosh's ease of use (Score:0, Informative)
Its apple store, not app store
Re:Macintosh's ease of use (Score:5, Informative)
And, also that is definitely not for download, because, you know there is a shipping estimate there? And the first picture actually shows you the physical box the software is shipping in?
Besides, that box also contains the old version 8 which does not have the obnoxious behavior written about here. That one is new for version 9, which is not in your link.
Re:Macintosh's ease of use (Score:5, Informative)
Parallels is NOT sold in the AppStore. It's installed via a custom stand-alone installer.
Of course it is [apple.com]...
You do realize that's not the App store, but Apple's store where they ship you a box with the software?
Re:Lost a customer (Score:5, Informative)
I've been using Parallels over VMWare Fusion for a few years now (there has been some good bundle pricing on it, and there were some features it had that VMWare lacked at the time when I was deciding, though I don't recall what those were now).
Unless this turns out to be a tempest in a teacup or otherwise invented or overblown, I won't be doing that anymore, and VMWare will have gained back a customer.
Dan Aris
Why not just use VirtualBox? Or are you not touching that due to Oracle having their fingers in it?
I've used it, but as MightyYar says, it doesn't do as much as VMWare Fusion or Parallels on the Mac. It 3D support, for instance, still leaves a lot to be desired.
Dan Aris
Re:Lost a customer (Score:5, Informative)
Because VirtualBox is slow and lacks features.
Was going to buy... (Score:3, Informative)
I was going to upgrade to Parallels Desktop 9 but after reading about this I might as well switch to VMware fusion 6.
Mac OS X OS system? (Score:4, Informative)
Mac Operating System X operating system system?
This is a new record for redundancy records.