Bearfruit

OK, so you’ve downloaded Parallels for Linux (if you have Ubuntu 7.10 you can just apt-get install parallels) and you’ve tried to get it working but the window is transparent. This seems to be because parallels has a problem with desktop effects enabled. Here’s how to fix it.

If you launch parallels using the below command it will work just fine:

env XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 parallels

Voila! It works like magic, now parallels works just fine.

I haven’t decided if I like it better than VMware server. The interface is simpler and it has the shared folder feature which you don’t get in VMware unless you buy Workstation. If Parallels for Ubuntu included the “coherence” feature which allows you to run Windows apps without the desktop (available only on the Mac version of Parallels) I’d shell out the $60 in a heartbeat. Without that I’m not sure if I’m willing to pay the money for parallels.