I have pretty low expectations in the integrity and competence of others. I didn't always, but being repeatedly bludgeoned by scenarios like the one that is currently playing out have slowly inverted by approach to other people from one of "benefit of the doubt" to "respect must be earned."
By default Parallels allocates a very small amount of video memory for Linux installs. Simply increase the amount of available video memory to allow for the largest desired resolution. With the Parallels Tools installed you will now be able to scale the window to resolutions higher than 1024x768.
Continued from 
I have pretty low expectations in the integrity and competence of others. I didn't always, but being repeatedly bludgeoned by scenarios like the one that is currently playing out have slowly inverted by approach to other people from one of "benefit of the doubt" to "respect must be earned."
