Just passing along for those looking for commercial grade virtualization software that’s now zero cost. Previously only the Personal version was free, and with this announcement all versions including those for use in commercial endeavors are now also free.
For those who have never used a VM, it’s a great way to test other OSes virtually on a physical machine, or create VMs that you can roll back to prior states for various development/testing endeavors.
P.S. Note that Fusion on Apple Silicon Macs can’t virtualize macOS (you can use UTM or other products for that), and Workstation on Windows also can’t virtualize macOS.
That would be super awesome as I’d love to consolidate down into a single product. How do you do this? Here’s what I’m seeing when I try and create a new VM on an Apple Silicon Mac (Intel Macs on the other hand have a listing for macOS).
Sorry about that, I stand corrected. They did support it in one of their tech previews but it seems you are correct and it’s completely gone now. That’s a bummer and will kill off my use for VMWare on my work computer now too.
Tried UTM and gave up. It’s great for running macOS 9, but I really don’t want to have to think about which tool I’m using for virtualization at any given time.
It should be noted that Parallels is simply exposing what Apple built into the OS for macOS VMs and there are some major limitations.
Until Microsoft changed something about hypervisor, I had all macOS versions from 10.10 onward running on Workstation on my Windows PC. It is possible, but requires generating some spoofed hardware serial numbers and manual editing of vm files. Sadly, I can no longer run VM’s on Windows 11 without disabling one of their new security features.
I don’t know what Broadcom is doing. I love sites that say [Click Here] to download and take through at least 40 other screens until you just give up and determine that it’s just not possible. Along the way they give you “help” to bait you along… tell you you need to register…key in codes sent to your email… stand on one foot while rubbing your stomach and patting your head… I LOVE that.
The company I worked for used VMware for… everything… and it was nice that I could use VMWare Fusion and bring home an entire VM on a flash drive to access a pre-configured test system… or connect to A VMHost. That said, I found Parallels in general the superior tool for the desktop user. VMware ruled the roost with raw Hypervisors, VMotion, Snapshot management etc… but Fusion was kind of a pig on disk and memory etc. It took 10X as long to suspend and resume a machine compared to Parallels . In Fusion If forgot to do something in a VM it was a 5 minute ordeal to resume…make the change and re-susspend. It was so much faster in Parallels – I could do the same in 30 seconds. I now pay Parallels their yearly subscription – there are lower cost / free solutions — but I’m willing to pay for fewer headaches. I’m running Windows in VM as well as a few Linux variants. That’s one reason why I’m “stuck” in Intel — I really need the intel chipset to support the Linux systems I use. Compiling for a different architecture won’t give me the compatibility I need. I wouldn’t mind a solution like ye 'old OrangePC. if they could do something on a thunderbolt appliance . I used to have a little Intel (Windows) toaster on my desk. but then I need a KVM which is awkward…plus the networking kludge to move stuff back and forth.
Considering this topic has expanded a bit to talk about other VM Software, I’ll flesh out the list for macOS as the host including my own quick assessment of each:
Excellent support across OSes including macOS, but limited support or technical setup needed for features such as clipboard sharing, file sharing, etc.
Another nice wrapper around Apple’s macOS virtualization features but with less UI refinement in comparison to VirtualBuddy. Only virtualizes macOS guests and only runs on Apple Silicon Macs.
Folks may disagree with these assessments and that’s fine. VM preference can very much be a controversial discussion similar to one’s computer choice (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc.), phone choice (iOS, Android, AOS, etc.), Linux distribution choice, political party preference, choice of programming language, tabs versus spaces, dogs versus cats, etc.
What other notable VM solutions for macOS, are missing from the list?
parallels is like $50/year, i believe, so not much of a burden. that’s what we’ve been using for forever, on multiple macs. obviously $50 is more than free.
What I’d be interested is knowing the easy/complexity of moving from one to another.
Currently, I use Parallels Desktop, but I’d be interested in trying free solutions. I don’t know which one will fit my needs before trying, and I don’t want to buy yet another Windows licence (I’d use the VM exported from Parallels (keeping a backup)).
On the other hand, I’ve tried VirtualBox about a dozen of time, and each time the VM did become corrupted in less than one month, so I know there are unreliable softwares in the list, so choosing another one won’t be a quick thing.
Does each listed software provide importing a VM from another virtualisation software?
I also don’t know if I stop paying Parallels for one year (to try other softwares), whether I’ll have to pay more (full price?) if I come back to Parallels one year later.
At least many moons ago and last time I tried, you could go pretty easily between Parallels and Fusion. Moving between any of the others, IMHO, is a gamble and I wouldn’t count on that being very doable, reliable, if even possible.
Fusion can convert Parallels Windows 11 Arm image, but not use it right away as it claims that it can’t run Intel image.
Create a new VM in Fusion, but opt to create a custom VM. in the “Select an Installation Method” dialog.
In the “Choose Operating System” dialog, select a Windows 11 64-bit ARM
In the “Choose Firmware Type” dialog, you can leave the “UEFI Secure Boot” box unchecked.
In the “Choose Encryption” dialog, I’d recommend choosing the default “Only the files needed to support a TPM are encrypted” option. Provide the password for your new VM as requested. Even if you check “Remember password and store it in the Mac’s keychain”, I’d remember the password yourself. If something goes wonky with the keychain or you want to move the VM to another system, you’ll need to know the password.
In the “Choose a virtual disk” dialog, choose “Use an existing virtual disk”. and click on the “Choose virtual disk…” button. A file browser window will open that you can use to navigate into the converted VM’s bundle (yes, it will let you drill into the bundle like it’s a normal folder, and not have to go through the “Show Package Contents”). Select the .vmdk file that doesn’t have -s0xx.vmdk in the name. In your case that would be “Windows 11-0.vmdk” - It should be the only one not grayed out.
Before hitting “Choose”, though, make sure the option is selected to “Make a separate copy of the virtual disk”. That will copy the virtual disk into your new virtual machine, leaving the original untouched. Now you click “Choose”.
In the Finish dialog, you can click the “Customize Settings” or “Finish” buttons. Finish will power on the vm, Customize Settings gives you a chance to change things like memory and CPUs before powering on the VM.
Either way, you’ll be presented with a dialog to save the new VM. Once. you provide the name and location for the new VM and click “Done”, the data will be copied from the old VM.
And that’s a good point. In my case, I’m planning to try in the next few months, on the same computer (thus all will be ARM only). That’s different from also trying with different architectures, so answers will vary.
Possibly each possible move has already been solved by some other users, making it doable (with different things to watch out)
