Will Apple ever liberalize Mac OS X virtualization?
Customers are clamoring to virtualize the Mac OS X client, but Apple has only grudgingly allowed it to be run on virtual machines
Follow @infoworldOver the past two years, running Windows and Windows apps virtually on Apple hardware has become a popular way for consumers to dump their PCs in favor of Mac gear.
Microsoft's liberal attitude, while hurting hardware partners such as HP and Dell, has also enabled the spread of Windows to Apple's previously-inaccessible hardware.
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In contrast, Apple has only grudgingly allowed Mac OS X to be run on virtual machines. The regular client version of Leopard cannot be run virtually, whether on Apple's hardware or not.
Only the server version of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard can be turned into a virtual machine, or guest. That must be on Mac hardware, though desktops, laptops or servers are all allowed. The VMs must also run on top of the base Leopard server OS.
The implications of these limitations on price are huge. It costs a minimum of $499 -- the retail price for Apple's smallest 10-pack of OS X Server Leopard licenses -- to run Leopard virtually today. Meanwhile, a 5-pack of regular Leopard licenses retails for $129.
Pete Kazanjy, marketing manager for VMware's Fusion (read First Look: VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1) Mac-Windows virtualization software, says that from a technical standpoint, there's "no difference" between the client and server versions of Leopard.
Users have not been stopped by the barriers to circumventing Apple's license.
A small vendor, DiscCloud, released software last month it claims can be used to legally enable non-Apple PC servers to host Leopard-client virtual machines.
"It's on a lot of peoples' minds," said Kazanjy. "Apple has built its business model of pairing really wonderful hardware with their wonderful software. They are really leery of letting things slide in there."
"We've heard requests from our customers" to virtualize the Leopard client, said Ray Chew, senior product manager at Parallels, which earlier this summer released the first software to enable Leopard Server to be virtualized. "We have to tell them you can't do anything against Apple's EULA [End User License Agreement.]"
