Apple,
Open OS X licensing to allow it to run in a virtual machine. Every other major OS allows for this. While Microsoft seems to be the whipping boy, even they have versions that allow Windows to run in a VM.
Why
- OS X already runs in VMs
- People with purchasing power will want to evaluate software before purchasing hardware for deployment
- System administrators can’t easily recommend systems which they can’t have a VM handy to use
- Nothing to lose*
* — I am sure the Apple fanboys will come along, and leave a comment like “Well they sell the system and operating system bundled to ensure quality drivers etc”, or something along those lines. That is great, but a VM will have the same drivers for anyone using it regardless of hardware, so nothing like that is an issue. The enterprise world is going Virtualized, and if you want to be a real contender, you need to start here. Apple may be happy selling iphones and ipods, but with recently movements in open standards, people are not as tied to Windows as they once were, and this gives every OS a chance to steal some market share.
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#1 by Stosh on May 12, 2007 - 11:06 pm
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It has nothing to do with drivers, it has everything to do with good business. OS X, the only operating system you can have Mac, Windows and *nix all at the click of a mouse. That’s profitable. It’s all about the $$$.
#2 by admin on May 13, 2007 - 10:51 am
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How is overly restrictive licensing good business? If Microsoft did the same thing everyone would be up in arms.
#3 by Kevin on May 13, 2007 - 12:02 pm
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It has very little to do with drivers. It has to do with the fact that they are not an OS vendor. They are a hardware vendor. Historically their hardware was not x86 based and so they needed something to run on it. Hence MacOS. OSX existed for the same reason. Or did you forget that OSX.0 debuted on PPC machines? Now, I’m not saying that is the ONLY reason for MacOS’ existance; however, it most certainly played a part. As far as OSX still existing when they switched to x86 hardware? Your request proves the point. People want it.
#4 by erik on May 13, 2007 - 1:20 pm
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.. because their customer target group doesn’t need that, or would want to play around with VMs. In fact, most of them have heard of virtualization but couldn’t care less – they got real things to do and real lifes to live.
#5 by oomu on May 13, 2007 - 1:45 pm
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you seem to forget Apple has increased its gain in BOTH ipod AND Macintosh
they will not change for some time.
and hu, you can buy os X without a mac. and use it on a VM.
and for the part you speak about “to be a real contender”, apple is , in a market totally different of what you’re thinking.
apple does not care about virtualized servers, they do not care so much about “business market”, they ARE not in big professionnal needs
(apart os X server and some 1U xserve, they don’t care a lot, it’s just support to do os X based network applications, as xgrid, shake, and others final studio stuff )
yeah, I’m sure you think everyone are just stupids fans and they cry about Microsoft.
it has nothing with microsoft. simply than mostly noone cares about to run os X in some VM.
os x is great for a Desktop, for a notebook computer, great, nice and useful, totally.okay. but why I would run some os X in some vms???
I will prefer to launch Tens Linux with great java/tomcat/apache/jboss/mysql/oracle stuff or a experimental gnome 2.19 session. not to launch one more os X . (why ? because I would fear my huge Maya work session will break my Photoshop editing ? no no..)
for mac user, VM is great to launch Windows or Linux without to give up the Aqua interface and os X capabilities.
for others, it’s just a way to use os X without macintosh. Apple does want to sell Computers. apple wants to sell computers.
well. you can do it. so just do it.
#6 by admin on May 13, 2007 - 1:54 pm
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The reason I bring it up is because lately I have been influenced to try an Apple (specifically the Macbook Pro), but with silly licensing issues like this I am afraid that would make me very hypocritical.
#7 by NiKo on May 13, 2007 - 3:27 pm
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Apple want people to run virtualized OS in OSX, not the opposite. But I agree it would be a very nice