#Os x server virtualization install#
#Os x server virtualization software#

The new Vista license only allowed the Ultimate and Business versions of the OS to be installed as guest operating systems within a virtualization program. (They also allow it with their Windows server products.) When Windows Vista shipped, however, things changed. With Windows XP, Microsoft allowed (or more specifically, didnвЂ™t disallow) virtualization of the OS. Finally, virtual copies of your real OS are great вЂњplaygroundsвЂќ to help learn about the OS without fear of breaking things badly if you make a really bad mistake.

If the virtual machine becomes infected, your main OS will not-and you can then revert the virtual machine, or if itвЂ™s beyond salvation, just throw it away and start over. Another possible use, especially in a world filled with вЂdrive byвЂ™ malware infestations on poorly-protetected Windows machines, would be to do your casual browsing on a browser running in a virtual machine. Or perhaps youвЂ™ve read about some Windows registry tweak that will improve performance, and you want to test it before you apply it to your вЂњrealвЂќ machine. If things go poorly, you can revert to the saved snapshot in a matter of a few mouse clicks.

#Os x server virtualization install#

Before you install some complex new app, create a snapshot of your virtual machine, then install the program and test.

#Os x server virtualization software#

So why might you want to do this?ДЇor one thing, by running a virtual copy of your core OS, you can safely experiment with new software packages. You must, of course, then have two licenses for Windows XP, as youвЂ™ll occasionally be using two copies of the OS at once. But thereвЂ™s something else you can do with virtualization software-virtualize the same operating system that youвЂ™re currently running.ДЇor instance, if youвЂ™re running Windows XP, you could install a Windows virtualization application (there are a number of such products, including VirtualPC from Microsoft), and then install Windows XP as a virtual installation. As described in the article, the primary reason many individuals do this is to run some version of Windows on their Macs to gain access to programs that arenвЂ™t available on the Mac.

These two programs are virtualization solutions-they allow one вЂњhostвЂќ operating system (Mac OS X) to run any number of other вЂњguestвЂќ operating systems (Windows, Linux, DOS, etc.) within the host operating system. Recently I wrote a detailed article on using VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop on the Mac.