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Free Appstore vs. paid Paralells Desktop

macstatic

macstatic

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 21, 2005
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Norway
I'm looking into various ways of running older and unsupported (32 bit etc.) software that I use while upgrading to a more recent OS version. I'm currently using 10.13.6 (High Sierra).

I've gotten VirtualBox to run Windows, and now I want to run for instance OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard) which I'm struggling to get working within VirtualBox. Someone suggested I look into Parallels instead, as it's a whole lot easier to set up. I've also been told there's a free AppStore version. Does anyone know the difference between the paid and free versions? I'll only be using it occasionally, so I might be able to live with some limitations.

If the free Appstore version is usable I still have another problem:
I can't download/install it because I need to be on MacOS 11 (Big Sur) which neither my Mid-2010 Mac Pro nor my mid-2012 Macbook Pro can run (as far as I know).

But.... (in case there's an earlier Appstore version of Parallels that does run on my Macs) I remember reading about a way to (temporarily) make the Appstore think you're on a different MacOS, so you can download that latest app version (even though you can't install/use it), then change back to the correctly recognizeable MacOS version, and ask to download the "previously purchased/downloaded app" where you'll be asked if you want to download the latest compatible version instead of the current one.
I can't remember the details of how this was done, but I believe you edited some preference file or something in i.e. Textedit for the Appstore app. Maybe someone can fill me in with the details.
Of course this is of no help in case there is no Appstore-version of Parallels which works with older OSes than 11. Does anyone know?
 
Thanks, I hadn't found that comparison page on their site before.
Honestly I don't understand what most of those features mean (meaning I probably won't need or miss them), although the one thing I need is to be able to transfer files back and forth between the normal Mac environment and the virtual Mac environment. Failing that I can alsways save files on a USB-stick and open them in the other environment.

Do you know which MacOS-compatible versions the Appstore has available of the free version?
 
it doesn't look like free; the in-app purchases are higher than a standard Parallels price. Am I misreading the App Store info?
 
What kind of in-app purchases are there?
Is it more or less just a trial version and you have to buy those in-app purchases to basically work?
(I have no so far no way of trying it out).
 
"PRICING:
- Creating and editing virtual machine configurations is available for free.
- Running virtual machines requires an in-app purchase of an auto-renewable subscription (1 year). You can cancel at any time.
- There is a fully functional 14-day trial to test Parallels Desktop before the subscription starts."
 
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Ah!!! Thanks for checking the app, bogdanw.
So basically the "free" Appstore version is useless (except for 14 days of trying it out), but you can play around with the settings. But not free at all.

I think I'll give Virtual Box another go with getting various older MacOS versions to work. That one is actually free, but of course not as streamlined as Parallels.
 
macstatic said:
Ah!!! Thanks for checking the app, bogdanw.
So basically the "free" Appstore version is useless (except for 14 days of trying it out), but you can play around with the settings. But not free at all.

I think I'll give Virtual Box another go with getting various older MacOS versions to work. That one is actually free, but of course not as streamlined as Parallels.
Click to expand...
I'm running High Sierra in a VM on my AMD Ryzen Lenovo Yoga 6 running Windows 10. It runs surprisingly well. The downside to it is that Pixelmator doesn't run since it requires direct access to the GPU. I haven't had time to troubleshoot the issue to see if there is a workaround.

Getting it to work on an AMD-hosted system was a bit tricky, but running it on an Intel-based system should be straightfoward.
 
Coincidentally, I installed Snow Leopard in Parallels 18 just this past weekend. Parallels won't run Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard due to licensing restrictions. You'll need a copy of Snow Leopard Server or hack things up a bit.
ivanexpert.com

Snow Leopard in Parallels Desktop

This is a technical post on how to get the Snow Leopard OS running on a Mac in Parallels Desktop, so that older Apple software can be run on a newer Mac. It has
ivanexpert.com ivanexpert.com

I followed the process outlined on above blog post but couldn't get the script to run.. so I performed the Unix commands myself.
 
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Wow! Thanks guys.
Looks like I have several free options to try out. I'll give both UTM and VMware Fusion Player a go.

As for Snow Leopard -I still have my installation DVD, and it's a pity it can't be normally installed even if you have a legal copy but have to get the "server" version. Is it even possible to get the server DVD installer today?
Someone even referred to the above Snow Leopard restriction as being a myth, explaining why.

Thinking about it I can possibly do without Snow Leopard, but will need something like 10.9 (Mavericks) or thereabouts in order to run some older software.
 
It's not a myth. it's just a Parallels/Apple thing.. not a general Apple licensing restriction per se. Just tried. Screenshot from Parallels 18 when creating a virtual machine and attempting to start from a USB drive containing Snow Leopard install media. I think Snow Leopard be the last Mac OS to include original Rosetta which allows one to run PPC apps.
Screen Shot 2023-02-01 at 9.21.26 PM.png
 
Ignore the myths or non-myths.
From https://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/macosx106.pdf
"Single Use License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, unless you have purchased a Family Pack or Upgrade license for the Apple Software, you are granted a limited non-exclusive license to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-branded computer at a time. You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-branded computer, or to enable others to do so. This License does not allow the Apple Software to exist on more than one computer at a time, and you may not make the Apple Software available over a network where it could be used by multiple computers at the same time."

So the EULA for Snow Leopard allows running it on only ONE Mac (unless you have a family license). The general interpretation of this is that SL is allowed in a virtual machine running on Lion upwards so long as it is the only use of SL. So if you upgraded to Lion or Mountain Lion, you would be (or should be) allowed to run SL in a VM on that one computer. But not allowed is running a SL VM on a SL host (that would be 2 copies on one computer). Fusion and Parallels blocked all use of SL in a VM supposedly at Apple's request.

All changed with Lion because OS X (and future upgrades) were included in the cost of the Mac hardware. Previously all upgrades cost.

There were ways around the SL restrictions built into Parallels and Fusion.

The leading thread being that of MichaelLAX https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...and-rosetta-into-parallels-7-in-lion.1365439/ where I contributed my experiences getting SL to run under Fusion.

More recent for Parallels: https://ivanexpert.com/2020/06/snow-leopard-in-parallels-desktop/. And for Fusion: https://tinyapps.org/docs/snow_leopard_guest_os.html

And there is always the Snow Leopard Server solution which Apple later started selling for $30. I don't know if that is still true. Anyway, I expect you can find a copy to download.
 
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I don't know if I need to run Snow Leopard in a VM, but in case I do (I have the original installation DVDs -the desktop version, not the server) -is it possible/easy to install under VMFusion Player and UTM?
I haven't had time to experiement with this as I've had too many other issues to handle with my Mac Pro, but looks like I'm starting to resolve those, so I can get back to trying all this VM stuff out.

UPDATE: I finally got round to creating an account for downloading VMware Fusion Player only to find out that I can't use it on any of my Macs as it (the current version 13) needs a minimum of MacOS 12 or 13 (I'm on 10.13.6 High Sierra).
Does anyone know if it's possible to "downgrade" to an earlier version of Fusion Player once you've registered with them?

The problem is similar with UTM -it needs a minmum of MacOS 11.3 or later. So currently my only virtual solution is still Virtualbox.
 
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