Mac on Mac Virtualization?

illovich · Mar 4, 2007

Although it doesn't seem to be on the list, I was wondering if the mac version of parallels could run a virtualized copy of Mac OS X. I understand Apple has been against virtualizing on non-Apple hardware, so I want to be clear I'm only asking if it's possible on my Mac.

I've been thinking about joining the ADC at work (mostly just for access to what's coming out soon

), but I don't really have an extra mac just lying around that I can sacrifice to a beta OS or software, and I thought it woudl be pretty cool to have a virtual install so I could goof and poke around, but not have to worry about hosing a production machine.

Thanks much

constant · Mar 4, 2007

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Apple lincensing restrictions make that unavailable, though it is apparently quite possible.
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illovich · Mar 4, 2007

That's a shame, since it doesn't seem like Apple loses anything if I run a different copy in a VM... I guess MS can add that to their list of reasons it's better to develop on Windows

Thanks for the reply!

tangential · Mar 5, 2007

Maybe bootcamp could be the answer....

illovich said:
I've been thinking about joining the ADC at work (mostly just for access to what's coming out soon ), but I don't really have an extra mac just lying around that I can sacrifice to a beta OS or software, and I thought it woudl be pretty cool to have a virtual install so I could goof and poke around, but not have to worry about hosing a production machine.

Thanks much

Could you do it with BootCamp? Have 10.4.x in one partition and 10.5.X in another?

darkone · Mar 5, 2007

illovich said:
That's a shame, since it doesn't seem like Apple loses anything if I run a different copy in a VM... I guess MS can add that to their list of reasons it's better to develop on Windows

Thanks for the reply!

M$ restrict you (via their EULA) from using Vista versions below Business, (ie home etc) in virtualised environments..

krunnch · Mar 5, 2007

illovich said:
That's a shame, since it doesn't seem like Apple loses anything if I run a different copy in a VM...

Except the minor side effect that their OS would then run on real PCs.

mmischke · Mar 5, 2007

There are some very legitimate reasons for wanting to run OS X under virtualization. Many Windows users run Windows under virtualization. It's quite handy for easily creating a variety of QA and IT test-bed scenarios.

Perhaps Apple will realize this and let us run OS X virtualized under (at least) OS X.

itsdapead · Mar 5, 2007

Market forces

mmischke said:
There are some very legitimate reasons for wanting to run OS X under virtualization. Many Windows users run Windows under virtualization. It's quite handy for easily creating a variety of QA and IT test-bed scenarios.

Perhaps Apple will realize this and let us run OS X virtualized under (at least) OS X.

I'd agree that its potentially useful - but I'd assume that, at the moment the demand for this is totally dwarfed by the demand from "switchers" who need a way of running Windows on their new Macs. This is clearly where Parallels' efforts have been focussed so far, and seems to be what VMWare are pitching at with Fusion, and there's still work to be done.

Remember that the PC using world includes a vast army of corporate in-house programmers maintaining bespoke software - so there is a big potential market for developer-focussed products like VMWare Workstation. I'm sure that the Mac developer market is tiny by comparison. Also (as someone pointed out when this was raised before) it won't solve the problem of testing PPC versions of software.

Likewise, I'd expect that the majority of XServes are used as fileservers/numbercrunchers for Mac users, rather than web/application servers where server virtualization is useful. Again - a few exceptions do not a market make.

I don't see any reason why Parallels or VMWare couldn't collaborate with Apple to include a hook to allow a guest copy of OSX to verify that the virtual machine was hosted on a Mac, which is all Apple needs to be worried about. If that does happen we'll find out when it is announced. Unless Apple has its own virtualization plans (Click here to create a virtual machine sandbox for this new user...?).

Also, how much does the OSX desktop depend on hardware 3D acceleration? That might be a pre-requisite for Mac-on-Mac virtualization.