Parallels Desktop update adds support for Chrome OS

Posted on by Nicholas Bonsack, Macworld.com

Parallels, whose Desktop offering lets you run a variety of operating systems without ever having to leave Mac OS X, has updated Parallels Desktop 5.0 to include support for Google’s Chrome OS.

Previously, Parallels Desktop worked with Google's open source version of Chrome OS, dubbed Chromium OS, but with a few tweaks. With this development, Parallels claims that Parallels Desktop 5.0 will be able to run Chrome OS.

“There is already a huge amount of interest in Google’s new OS, even though it’s still just in beta, so we want to make sure our customers can try it out on their Macs without impacting their primary work environment on Mac OS X,” said Kim Johnston, Vice President of Marketing for Consumer, Business and Online at Parallels, in the press release announcing the new build of Desktop.

“It’s important to us that we continue to innovate to meet our customers’ needs, giving them the ability to use the broadest range of applications possible, whether on Mac, Windows, Linux or Chrome operating systems.”

It's not clear if Parallels is referring to Chrome OS, the yet to be released version for netbooks that has features that Chromium OS doesn't have, or Chromium OS, which is still in public beta.

In addition to Chrome support, Parallels Desktop 5.0 build 9344 features the usual laundry list of welcome fixes. Included in this update are several improvements to overall operation and performance in Windows, Linux and Mac OS X server 10.6.2 and 10.6.3 virtual machines, as well as support for Star Trek Online.