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Just wondering, has anyone tried to run OS X in a VM environment running in Windows 7? What's the performance like? Any issues in regards to development of iOS software?

I have to emphasize this is mostly for software development, I don't mind so much if something minor like video playback or Adobe Photoshop doesn't run in VM, so long as all the relevant tools and APIs as well as connectivity to an iOS device runs fine.

Kara
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meds
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    Virtualization is a tool that is used by software developers in the course of their work. I would argue this is not Off Topic. It could be better formed, but the underlying issues is solidly on-topic. – Jordan Dea-Mattson Feb 08 '13 at 06:24

3 Answers3

36

OS X runs quite well in VMware after you've done the necessary tricks to get it to install in the first place. You don't get 3D acceleration but everything else is good.
There are quite a few well written guides on how to get an installation going.

eg. http://www.online-tech-tips.com/mac-os-x/install-snow-leopard-on-pc/

Cajunluke
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Coxy
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29

Unfortunately, and I really mean that, it is a violation of the OS X software license to virtualize any version of OS X Client on any hardware.

OS X Server Snow Leopard and later may be virtualized on Apple Hardware and support exists in both VMware Fusion, Parallels, VirtualBox for doing so. None of them will virtualize OS X client. There are hacks which will get you around their checks, but it is still a violation of your OS X client license.

I have seen OS X Client and server virtualized using VirtualBox on both Apple and non-Apple hardware, so it is doable.

The fact that you cannot virtualize OS X Client on even Apple Hardware is a major pain for anyone engaged in testing software to run on OS X. While I can on a single system - and in fact we use Macs for it - exercise a full range of Windows configurations, I can't do the same for OS X Client legally.

Brian Webster
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Jordan Dea-Mattson
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    Up vote for sharing the legal side of a computer question. – Michael Dec 14 '12 at 14:09
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    +1 for "and I really mean that" - while I understand it, it's still such a shame. – Ephemera Feb 07 '13 at 04:13
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    Oh no! Not the software license D: – Alexander Mar 24 '14 at 01:14
  • I am not happy about these "but vendor license prohibits..." posts. Stackoverflow is not restricted to a single country, and it is not uncommon, that while some companies claim thounds of rights and retrictions in their license agreements, these might have been ruled inapplicable by national courts. – Martin May 31 '15 at 21:11
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There used to be a program called PearPC, it ran, but with not very good performance. I believe you can get VMware to run Snow Leopard, according to this post, but performance will ultimately depend on the host machine's hardware.

Cajunluke
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WrightsCS
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    PearPC won't run any sort of iOS development, as it emulated a PowerPC processor and iOS dev requires Intel. – Cajunluke Aug 09 '12 at 16:44