OS X Leopard gets 'secure' Parallels Desktop

Parallels has begun testing its virtualisation software for Apple's latest operating system, Leopard.

Leopard was announced by Apple's chief executive, Steve Jobs, at his company's Worldwide Developers Conference in June. But it wasn't until October that Parallels, a Mac virtualisation specialist, said it would release a version of its software for Leopard.

Ben Rudolph, communications director for SWsoft, Parallels' holding company, said there were a few issues to be fixed with the product, Parallels Desktop for Mac. These issues "need to be resolved, but that can be done in a couple of weeks", Rudolph said at the time.

Parallels also announced on Friday a premium edition of Parallels Desktop for Mac that includes three extra pieces of software.

The first piece of software, Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0, offers protection against malware, such as viruses, spyware and spam, that can damage a virtualised Windows machine running on a Mac. The other two -- backup software and disk-management software -- are manufactured by Acronis.