Mac OS X Lion Supports Running Additional OS X Instances Within a Virtual Machine

Jul 2, 2011 - 6 Comments

Mac OS X Lion in a Virtual Machine

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion can run additional copies of itself in virtual machines on the same machine, this is the first time that Apple has allowed this feature outside of Mac OS X Server. This was discovered by MacRumors:

Running separate instances of Mac OS X should be possible under virtualization solutions such as VMware Fusion and Parallels. This functionality allows you to deploy different sandboxed installations of OS X, typically for enterprise purposes.

The Lion GM End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) states that users can run up to two additional instances of Mac OS X Lion without purchasing additional licenses. Here is the segment of the EULA addressing virtualization, courtesy again of MacRumors:

(iii) to install, use and run up to two (2) additional copies or instances of the Apple Software within virtual operating system environments on each Mac Computer you own or control that is already running the Apple Software.

It should be pointed out that the virtualization license is separate from the personal use license.

Developers, IT, and engineers will find virtualization particularly useful, since it allows for rapid deployment of customized instances, and the testing of various configurations and software without impacting the core operating system

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Related articles:

Posted by: Matt Chan in Mac OS, News

6 Comments

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  1. Nam says:

    So now that Lion is out, has this been demonstrated? I’d like to run both Lion and Snow Leopard with Quicken.

  2. […] MacRumors via OS X Daily via George from […]

  3. […] one machine. Among the several sites that had this was Electronista. Another site that had this was OS X Daily, who mention the idea of a sandbox. When I mentioned such virtual operating systems to an IT person […]

  4. Kicker13 says:

    Build your own local cloud

  5. km says:

    This is a great feature, I wonder if we can run Snow Leopard in a VM to keep Rosetta apps around?

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