Hints That Non-Apple x86 PCs Will Soon Easily Be Able to Run Mac OS X

By | January 23rd, 2007 comments icon (5) Comments


apple osx tiger on top of linux vmware

Where to start? If you’ve dabbled or kept on top of virtualization from VMware for the past year you’ve probably heard about, or seen first hand, users who are able to run modified copies of OS X Tiger on both Windows and Linux PCs (in fact, there are non-sanctioned pre-built .vmx images floating around that are ready to go). For the most part OS X runs pretty smooth on these systems, but getting them initially up and running is no easy task when starting from scratch. But all that may soon change. CNN Money (via Digg) chatted with the biggest names in virtualization, Parallels and VMware, and found that internally both companies have been able to not only run OS X on generic x86 PCs using their platform, but are at the tipping point – with or without Steve Job’s approval – of releasing the capability to the public (no doubt with pre-configured Apple hardware settings). What do you think? Would this benefit Windows and Linux based operating systems like it has OS X? Or do Windows users even care with the abundance of software already available to them?





Filed in: Software

  • http://net-K.us/blog kaseiffert

    mmm Virtualation of OS X on linux or windows would be a cool thing. Hell it would be hand to use in OS X too (testing unstable software etc..). The question is, Will Apple allow it? Can they stop it?

    I for one have been in favor for a long time of releasing OS X into the wild and giving MS a real run for their money, however I understand that Apple is a hardware company and OS X is merely a tool for selling their hardware. I have to think Apple will try to stop this sort of thing, at least on paper.

    But behind the scenes this could be a sort of trial baloon to see if OS X can survive without Apple.

  • alister

    I would rather have the capability to dual boot OS X and XP, instead of just running OS X in a VM.

  • http://net-K.us/blog kaseiffert

    You can… on Apple hardware. Its called boot camp.

  • alister

    kaseiffert said: You can… on Apple hardware. Its called boot camp.

    The story is about running OS X on a standard x86 computer not Apple hardware. Why would I want to pay Apple’s jacked up hardware prices? :) I would love to be able to run OS X on my own custom built x86 without have to use VM.

  • http://net-K.us/blog kaseiffert

    well…. if you know where to look, you can do that too, but you should understand that with the new intel chips your not running it in a VM(virtual machine)… your running it with virtulazation, and the difference is virtualazation runs with almost no slowdowns, meaning that if you have a fair amount of ram you could run both os’s at the same time as if they were native.