If I am using Parallels as a way of using XP applications do I need to do all of the security updates and run virus and malware applications to protect my Mac? I asked this question to my daughter, a junior in college, and her answer was "42".

I am really lovin' this laptop! Parallels works like a champ. It's fast too. I'm finding that this laptop has a lot of simularities to Linux. The terminal commands seem to be the same. I'm really ignorant of anything but Windows.
Being able to run multiple OS simultaneously is pretty cool!