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Comment by ScottBurson | Hacker News Reader

I'm fairly sure I've seen people run OS X as a vmWare guest on either Windows or Linux.

It's entirely possible on VirtualBox, but it requires you to have a similar processor to an existing Mac, and some additional wizardry. I can verify it works for some virtualization software through at least Snow Leopard...not sure about Lion and beyond (but probably).

I love VirtualBox and I think it beats VMWare and others in UX department anytime. That said, for running Mac (Hackintosh) I would STRONGLY recommend VMWare. On VirtualBox I have tried 3 (!) different images and they were all slow, while the one I am running on VMWare works properly. And I mean properly.

I never had these kind of problems with Linux and Windows guests on VirtualBox though, so I'm not sure what the problem is - but it is real.

You can get VMWare Workstation to run Mountain Lion if you have Intel hardware. It's a bit harder for other hardware.

It ran pretty well last time I ran it, good enough for iOS testing.

Hmmm... does that mean that you can then run the other OSX vms (SL Server, Lion) inside of the Mountain Lion vm ? Like:

(((SL Server vm) vmware fusion on ML) Linux on Intel)

Yup, I've run OSX as a vmWare guest on Windows. It's possible and it works.

OK, but...

- how much initial wizardry is required

- how often does it need to be updated, or tended to ... is it like a hackintosh where you need to muck around with it every month or so because something "breaks" ?

Here is the first Google result for "OSX guest VM in windows": http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/08/how-to-run-mac-os-x-on-...

You'll also want to look up "osx86" and read up on that. TL;DR it's stable in my experience if you don't need to upgrade the OS. If you do want OS upgrades, even minor ones, it's going to be somewhat painful. While I've had VERY good results (my Kalyway OSX was more stable than a real MBP running Snow Leopard), YMMV.

Based on your comments, it wouldn't be an ideal solution for you.

-LazyWeb

Depends on how you do it. You can download an existing VMWare image (don't use VirtualBox for this - the guest will be slow, not sure why) and run it in minutes. Just be sure NOT to allow it any access to network, unless you are willing to be a part of some botnet. It's probably not legal even if you have the original CD.

Or you can install from your own ISO image... havent't tried it myself. But it's still against Apple EULA which states their software can only be used on their own HW.

While we are at it, how does Apple pull something like this off? Isn't there some anti-monopoly law that should prohibit using such EULAs?

Unfortunately that's not allowed by Apple. OS X needs to run on Apple hardware.

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