VMWare Announces Version for OS X In Development

pdscomp writes "VMware has just announced at today's Apple WWDC 2006 Conference that they are developing a port of VMware to Mac OS X. People interested in beta testing the product later this year can visit this link to sign up for the public test. It will be interesting to see how things play out between VMware and Parallels. Will Microsoft bother porting Virtual PC now that there will be two other Intel OS X virtualization solutions available? Now all we need is to get Mac OS X running under Xen."

Comments

One Way

[Nastard]

I find it interesting that nobody is making a move in the other direction. OS X virtualized in Windows, anyone?

Then again, the market would mostly be curious PC users who end up switching, and I don't know how much money there is to be made there.

Re:One Way

[__aaclcg7560]

So you want to run one of finest operating systems in a virtual machine on one of the worst operating system available? You must be smoking something good.

Re:One Way

[Richard_at_work]

The OSX License says the following:

2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions.
A. This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time.

Unless Apple relent, a virtualisation solution by a third party is not an 'Apple-labeled computer'. Anyone care to test this in a court of law? Thought not.

Re:One Way

[znu]

Third parties can't really do this, as it would require cracking OS X's copy protection and violating OS X's license agreement.

It might be interesting if Apple licensed someone's virtualization tech and used it to create a sort of downloadable "demo" version of OS X that Windows users could play around with, though. Can virtualized operating systems take advantage of GPU acceleration? Seems like that would be necessary for such an application, as OS X is somewhat less impressive for demo purposes without its GPU-accellerated eye candy.

Re:One Way

[andrewman327]

Darn license agreements. Always getting in the way of things that are fun.

Re:One Way

[MBGMorden]

Not a problem. I'll just get an Apple label and stick it on my PC :).

Re:One Way

[Jahz]

Third parties can't really do this, as it would require cracking OS X's copy protection and violating OS X's license agreement.

Unless something has changed, I don't believe there is any copy-protection for OSX. The last few times i've installed/upgraded OSX, there was never any key required, nor did the DVD ever resist duplication.

To be honest, I would be suprised if Apple did NOT turn a blind eye to pirating of OSX. It happens to be a great way to get Windows users to *try* OSX. Assuming Windows-to-Mac converts will buy at least one Mac computer after trying OSX, the payoff would be substantial. (not to mention that it could be made into a bait-and-switch scenario, in which Apple hooks people with the OS and then forces them to get a Mac or license).

Strange new world...

[jthill]

So, VMWare's gonna host on OS X, and Microsoft likes Xen? And the Xen guys are getting dinged for their proprietary attitude?

Ok. We've arrived. All ashore that's going ashore!