I'm curious about something. If you get a Mac Pro in a rackmount case and host it in a datacentre, are you allowed to run macOS virtual machines on it and provide access to them to clients?
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MP 14,8 M2 Ultra Mac Pro in rackmount case
- Thread starter Cromulent
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macOS VMs on Apple Silicon are limited in ways that they’re not on Intel. Eclectic Lighthouse had a recent article about it. Likely the model Apple is pursuing will be 1:1 for hardware and user - so Macstadium type thing where a whole machine can be rented by a single client.
Thank you. That is what I was hoping.
Thank you. Do you happen to have a link to some more information on this? I looked at the Eclectic Lighthouse website but didn't see it.
I’ve only skimmed it, but it was linked from Macintouch:
What works in virtualising macOS on Apple silicon, and what doesn’t
Although these VMs are fast and even support Rosetta 2, they do have significant disadvantages, as detailed here.
eclecticlight.co
Thank you. It is a shame you can only run two virtualised macOS instances on each host.I’ve only skimmed it, but it was linked from Macintouch:
What works in virtualising macOS on Apple silicon, and what doesn’t
Although these VMs are fast and even support Rosetta 2, they do have significant disadvantages, as detailed here.
The bigger problem is that you can't log in with your Apple ID. No iCloud, no App Store, no Apple Music, no AppleTV etc. It boggles the mind why Apple disallows access to an Apple ID from a VM when so much of their ecosystem depends on it. It makes a macOS VM almost useless.
Completely useless as an alternative to buying a dedicated machine for each user. They don’t want people doing exactly what the OP is suggesting - renting a share of a single machine.
With Apple Silicon Macs, Apple completes the last loop hole in its walled garden. Gains the ability to exert complete and tight control over its ecosystem and the users locked in. These funny restrictions on their VM framework running its own OS as guest just prove how powerful the control can be and how nasty Apple could become.