Alternative to VMware Fusion

[rev_olie]

Hi,

Does anyone know of an alternative to VMwarefusion for windows?

I want to have a look into Mac's as i know very little about them and their OS so was thinking of running a virtual machine.
I was hoping to load a Mac OS at the same time as windows so i don't break anything while looking and learning as such. I looked at this VMwarefusion which looks good but its for macs so does anyone know of an alternative.
I want to really learn about the Mac in general but don't have any money to actually get one . So anyone any ideas?...apart from books.

 

[LNCPapa]

Not legally - no. As far as I know, except on VMWare Fusion, there is no way to legally virtualize Mac OS X.

 

[Ultiweap]

Normally as I know Virtualisation is legal as you own the installation or even you may get it with a friend.

 

[rev_olie]

Darn... ok then Thanks for the replys

Just one last thing when running a virtual machine can it alter settings on your main PC or does the virtual machine not operate any form of your main install? I'm guessing it wouldn't.
For example if i alter the sound and must it would it just mute the sound coming from the virtual machine or would it mute everything...hope that's clear

 

[Ultiweap]

No it won't change nothing on the real one. Virtual Machine create a virtual HDD etc... for the virtualisation and it has nothing to do with the main OS. It is like a program working on the OS.

 

[rev_olie]

Ah ok then. Well looks like im going to have to find another way of experimenting with a MAC. Maybe look at installing it on an old Windows Machine i dunno but thanks for the replys

 

[SNGX1275]

Unlikely that will work, OS X is designed for Apple branded retail hardware. Getting it to work on PCs generally requires you picking pretty specific hardware that is known to work. Google up Hackintosh to get a better idea of what you are wanting to get into.

Really your best bet is to pick up a used PowerMac G4 Quicksilver, or Mirrored Drive Door (or even a Digital Audio) and put Tiger or Leopard on it (will probably come with Panther, Tiger, or Leopard). They should be available fairly cheap. The PowerMacs were the professional line from Apple in their day, so they are quality machines, albeit outdated. The only thing to be aware of is the PowerPC Macs will not run Snow Leopard when it comes out later this year.

 

[poundsmack]

virtual box can now

http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=15525

 

[rev_olie]

Really your best bet is to pick up a used PowerMac G4 Quicksilver, or Mirrored Drive Door (or even a Digital Audio)

Thanks for that good idea. Ive found one for £110 so it may be a posibility

However no heard of pocketbox before so this could be interesting. Thanks for that link poundsmack

 

[rev_olie]

Ive just tried Virtual box and i recommend it to any one wanting to run a virtual machine!

Ive just had Knoppix and Ubuntu running from ISO's i had and its reading from my old XP disk now so my friend is gong to lend me his MAC disk and its all good Thanks so much for that link poundsmack! just what i needed

 

[SNGX1275]

virtual box can now

http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=15525

From a different thread: http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8789

by Sasquatch » 19. Aug 2008, 15:21
Also, the MAC OS is not supported by VB. If you look at the dropdown menu, you will not see MAC OSX or any other reference to it.

So the beta apparently has some support for Snow Leopard.. I have not tried OS X in VirtualBox, have you? My suspecion is that it is very much like installing it for real on a PC. You still need specific hardware, and likely a hacked version of OS X. So.. pretty much exactly what I said above.

Best bet is to get the old G4 rev.

 

[rev_olie]

Yer im looking for the G4 still. Not had any luck. One came up on Freecycle but went and missed it Grrrr.

I see what mean about OSX as well .Cant see it anywwere on Virtual box. Im sure one day there may be support but until then im going to have to spend money dam

 

[SNGX1275]

I would doubt you ever see it. At least not for several years (nobody really thought Apple would change to Intel processors at one time). Apple keeps tight tabs on what their system will run on, this is why the OS is so well recieved. It is designed and built around the specific hardware Apple thinks it should run on, as opposed to trying to support hardware from nearly anyone that makes something that can be stuck in a PC.

I did download VirtualBox. Was unable to find the beta... It certainly does not have a pull down menu for OS X, but it does for the other main OSes (BeOS is missing too). I tried Other, and then set up a virtual drive for OS X and tried to boot it with my retail OS X disk and as expected it failed. I didn't pursue it any further at this time, and went ahead and made a new drive and installed WindowsME I may try a hackintosh OS X disk sometime in the future, but I've had poor luck with that on actual machines, outside of a VM.

 

[rev_olie]

I must admit the one Hackintosh i tried didn't work..however it was a number of years ago when i was maybe a little hasty

I though however that allot of the Linux installs wouldn't work on Virtual Box but then the Other Linux options seems good. Works with everything good for training purposes especially in Knoppix. I wonder if Server 2003 will work on Virtual box. Apparently so...i could do to learn that by September.

 

[mflynn]

I've been using Virtual Bos for some time and it is the Cats meow!

Not ran any Apple, but runs 98 2nd ed, win2k and server, XP, 2003 and Win7 flawlessly!

Mike

 

[rev_olie]

Im annoyed i missed the Windows 7 beta now actually as i really would have like to have used it with this...annoying

 

[SNGX1275]

VirtualBox actually hadn't completed my WindowsME install when I last posted. In fact, I think the total overall time to install it is well over 3 hours. I hope that isn't an indication of the speed I can expect from it.

 

[mflynn]

Something is wrong it took less than an hour to install Win7.

Mike

 

[rev_olie]

Ive tried it with Windows XP and it took less than 30 minutes to install and ran just like the old PC did. Have it installed on a separate hard drive to my main install which seems to make a different but maybe just physiological

 

[SNGX1275]

Yeh, something is definately wrong. I just gave up. Installing Windows7 7057 on the whole PC now. Will reload Vbox after I finish with 7 and give it a shot again, if it even hints at being slow again I'm giving up, no sense punishing myself with a virtual machine for no real reason.

 

[rev_olie]

Lol someone starts a thread and you end up downloading the software they were asking for...sounds like a perfect day at the office :approve:

 

[SNGX1275]

Well man, I'm considering giving up. I loaded a fresh copy of Win 7, fresh copy of VBox, and my own real life legal copy of WinME and its still INSANELY slow. I don't know what would cause this to happen, but aside from just curiosity I really have no dog in this fight so I may just give it a rest.

One thing I will say about VirtualBox though is it is easy to set up. So if I get motivated enough tonight I could install it on my Vista box and see if I can get ME to install and run.

 

[rev_olie]

Well it seems to work on Vista well so maybe you may have look.
But shaggy would never give up :stickout:

 

[SNGX1275]

Somebody else on this forum mentioned how slow 9x was in VirtualBox. So it isn't just me, although I find it hard to believe Sun would not fix that if this was a problem everyone was having. I may be getting a P2 350 soon, may just put 98se or ME on it if I ever need 9x again rather than relying on Vbox.

 

[rev_olie]

Ive found this here while looking at the VB forum. Maybe of some help