I would like to test software designed to run on a Mac and would need a couple of OS versions (old ones, too) and maybe other Mac software to set up my (virtual) test machines.
For the same scenario on Windows, I can use the licenses available via TechNet or MSDN subscriptions. At the ADC Mac Dev Center, I couldn't find any specific information as to what is available. Does an ADC membership get me downloads of software / OS's to test against? If not, what is available?
Bear in mind that I don't believe any version of Mac OS (barring OS X Server) is licensed for use in a VM. In theory, if you want to test different versions of the OS you'll need to do either multiple installs on a single system (My first iMac came with OS 9 and OS X installed this way, not sure you could get multiple OS X versions installed on a single box) or have lots of boxes.
Yes it does. You can download the operating systems as well as betas (although not as early as "proper" beta testers).
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I would like to know if I can install Xcode with Windows XP.If possible please provide the document link also.Thank you very much for any help in advance...
It's certainly possible.
There are two routes;
Install OSx86 (aka iATKOS / Kalyway) on a second partition/disk and dual boot.
Run Mac OS X Server under VMWare.
The first route requires modifying (or using a pre-modified) image of Leopard that can be installed on a regular PC. This is not as hard as you would think, although your success/effort ratio will depend upon how closely the hardware in your PC matches that in Mac hardware - e.g. if you're running a Core 2 Duo on an Intel Motherboard, with a NVidia graphics card you are laughing. If you're running an AMD machine or something without SSE3 it gets a little more involved.
If you purchase (or already own) a version of Leopard then this is a gray area since the Leopard EULA states you may only run it on an "Apple Labeled" machine. As many point out if you stick an Apple sticker on your PC you're probably covered.
The second option is the more costly. The EULA for the workstation version of Leopard prevents it from being run under emulation and as a result there's no support in VMWare for this. Leopard server however CAN be run under emulation and can be used for desktop purposes. Leopard server and VMWare are expensive however.
If you're interested in option 1) I would suggest starting at Insanelymac and reading the OSx86 sections.
I do think you should consider whether the time you will invest is going to be worth the money you will save though. It was for me because I enjoy tinkering with this type of stuff and I started during the early iPhone betas, months before their App Store became available.
Alternatively you could pickup a low-spec Mac Mini from eBay. You don't need much horse power to run the SDK and you can always sell it on later if you decide to stop development or buy a better Mac.
No. You can not install XCode on a Windows machine. You need MacOS to run XCode.
Although you can install VMWare Server on your windows machine and then install MacOS on that virtual server and can install the XCode on that MacOS server.
But to install MacOS(VMWare server) and start working on it. your hardware must support virtualization.
To install VMWare following links might be useful.
http://www.petri.co.il/virtual_install_vmware_server.htm
http://www.virtuatopia.com/index.php/Installing_VMware_Server_2.0_on_Windows_Systems
Or there is always Google.
YOu can check if your CPU supports virtualization here.
Since Xcode is an software of Mac OS so its not possible to run Xcode without Mac OS. And for Mac OS you can dual boot your computer with a Mac OS or simply you can just use VMWare to install Mac OS in your laptop or PC. Just the necessary requirement for installing Mac OS through Dual boot or through VMWare is that you need really high configuration in your laptop or PC, Like atleast you require 5th Generation core processor with atleast 4 cores also you require more than 4GB RAM for better functioning of Mac OS. Mac OS can be installed with 2nd generation processors, Dual core, and 2 GB RAM but it will take too much time. Which is not worth installing Mac OS in your laptop or PC. And even after installing you won't be able to use Xcode efficiently with such a low configuration. So it is recommended to have 5th Generation processor with 4 core and atleast 4GB RAM.
If you have this configuration than you need some files and software to install Mac OS in your Laptop.
For installation through VMWare you can prefer to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wodqGvug6e0
And I have the required file for the same as in video but not uploaded to the internet.
Hi stackoverflow community!
I am about to start developing patches for FreeBSD Ports Collection (pkgng utility) using C programming language.
The problem is that I am using Mac OS X and I am really do not want to switch to another operating system. I have installed Freebsd 9.0 on Parallels Desktop VM. Xcode 4.1 seems to be rather nice development tool for C.
Is it possible to implement development for FreeBSD via Xcode 4.1? How to set up project environment for such form of development and compile source for FreeBSD?
I am also opened for any other suggestions concerning cross-platform development using MacOS X to develop patches for FreeBSD. Which is the best way to organize all necessary stuff?
Since you want to develop patches for pkgng, I would strongly suggest that you compile and test the code on FreeBSD, because it is the only system that uses the ports and packages system that pkgng interfaces with. So unless it can cross-compile for FreeBSD, using any OS X IDE is probably not a good idea.
I'm not familiar with Parallels, but there is probably a file-sharing mechanism that you can set up between OS X and the FreeBSD running in the VM. That way you can edit your files on OS X and use them under FreeBSD.
X Code is really nice, and I would lean toward using it but then doing regular builds on a system actually running FreeBSD. If you have source for everything you're using (except standard libraries whose interfaces match), there is no reason not to work on OS X with Xcode. You can build your own libraries if need be. One thing writing cross platform does (provided you regularly build on the other platform) is make your code more portable. It's easier to avoid using platform specific "extensions".
I'm developing something for Mac OS X. It's a port of a Windows product.
One of my boss' concerns is how it will run on older versions of Mac OS X. I know Xcode has facilities for compiling for old versions of Mac OS X, but QA would prefer to actually run the older versions of Mac OS X on a Macintosh.
Since we got into Macintosh development after Snow Leopard was released, all of our machines come with Snow Leopard (10.6). As far as I know, you can't really walk into a store to buy Leopard (10.5) and anything prior to that is basically extinct.
In a question on virtualization someone said that they've done multi-boot or multiple hard drives for other versions of Mac OS X, but I'm not sure how one would obtain the install media or the license for an old version.
I see Apple has their Mac Developer Program which touts as one of its features as "access pre-release versions of the latest software" which is cool, but I don't see it anywhere on there that old versions of Mac OS X are available. Does Apple have an MSDN-equivalent where old versions of the software are available for download?
Also, is there a reliable breakdown somewhere of the rate of upgrades/updates to Mac OS X? (i.e., what % of users still run Mac OS X 10.5, 10.4, PPC-based machines, etc.)
In case you buy an old OS X from Amazon or other retailers, note that you can not install an OS which was released before the hardware was announced. Older OSes just don't have the required driver to be able to run on a newer machine, and Apple doesn't back-port drivers for older OSes. In other words, if you buy the latest new Mac from Apple, you can't install 10.5 or 10.4 or whatever. So, you need to buy an old Mac too, not just an old OS.
The breakdown of the OS ratio really depends on the software. For example, the veritable Omnigroup publishes this version breakdown of the hits of their software update server. There are many websites which tell you the version break down, see e.g. this site.
Judging from it, I would say Snow Leopard covers half of the Macs in the world. Supporting Leopard might be worth while if you have extra resources. But I would guess people who didn't buy Snow Leopard won't typically buy a new 3rd party app, so supporting Leopard won't give you 50% increase in the number of potential buyers. (I admit this last sentence is completely subjective, though.)
Apple Developer Connection does have most older OS version available for download, but it's not quite from a complete collection (specifically, they're missing a full install of 10.4.anything for Intel CPUs). They do have the GM builds of 10.6.0 (which is Intel only), 10.5.0 (Intel/PPC universal), 10.4.0 (PPC only), 10.3.0, and 10.2.0.
As others have said, you won't be able to use older versions of the OS on newer hardware, so you're going to have to get used computers for testing -- if purchasing doesn't like eBay &c, look for a company that specializes in used equipment, like PC Recycle. For maximum coverage, I'd recommend getting an Intel Mac that shipped with 10.4 (and make sure you get the installer disks that came with it), and a PPC Mac with that's as old as possible while still having a 867MHz+ G4 CPU (so you can run 10.5 on it, and don't have to worry about weird G5 builds) (again, be sure to get its original disks 'cause an older generic installer won't work).
One option (besides acquiring old OS versions yourself) is to use the compatibility labs that Apple maintains. Lots of machines, old and new, already set up with many different versions of the OS.
I believe you can get a "day pass" to the labs for ~$100. Depending on where exactly you're located and the cost of getting to Cupertino, this may or may not be a viable option for you.
http://developer.apple.com/labs/
As others noted, a number of sellers on Amazon have boxed old versions of the OS.
Historically, people used to boot off external Firewire drives to use older or beta OS versions, but of course some of the newer machines lack Firewire ports. I know EFI does support some external boot options (netboot for instance).
It might be possible to boot newer Intel hardware using a late version of 10.4 - but I couldn't guarantee it (as another poster noted, 10.4 won't have relevant hardware drivers - but there are basic generic drivers that may work. Then again, is that a realistic test???).
As an addition to Yuji's post - there are some people who are forced to stick with Leopard or Tiger for compatibility reasons (my father can't upgrade all the machines at his school, because the A3 colour printer only has generic printer support under Snow Leopard, and they also have a lot of older Adobe software). I would say that generally this applies more with institutional customers - for educational software running on 10.4, and even running on PowerPC hardware, can still be a significant issue.
For consumer software - less so - the big spike in Mac sales came after the switch to Intel, and almost all active consumer software purchasers are on Intel machines running 10.5 or later.
The other thing that needs to be considered is that 10.4 is missing many APIs introduced in 10.5 and 10.6.
On Windows, testing different OSes is made simple using VMs. Is there a simple way to do something similar for Mac testing, where I might need to run on Tiger/Leopard/Snow Leopard to verify functionality?
AFAICT, to run OS X in a VM you need OSX server or buy multiple Macs - is that what folks out there do? Or are there other cheaper options?
Due to the license, you must use Mac OS X Server if you'd like to virtualize. If you get an early Intel mac that will run 10.4, you could partition the disk and install 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6 simultaneously, though rebooting in to each OS can be a hassle.
These days there are more Mac OS X variants to test than just major OS releases. Depending on your target customers, you might also want to test on PPC, i386, and x86_64 architectures.
If you're lucky enough to live near Cupertino, Beijing, or Tokyo, and you're an ADC Select or Premiere member, you can use the ADC compatibility labs for this sort of testing.
That said, you could probably pick up a couple of older machines pretty inexpensively and get somewhat varied hardware.
You could have a single Mac with different partitions for each OS, or you could virtualise OS X server. Within the constraints of Apple's Mac OS X EULA you cannot virtualise Mac OS X.
The paid-for memberships of Apple's developer connection include the ability to download and use a range of previous versions of OS X and OS X Server for developer testing purposes. As the select membership is $500 and OS X Server is $499 then I'd think that's going to be cheaper if you want to test more than one variant of the server.
When I'm testing software I'm going to deploy or running through tests in the Windows world, I'll use VMWare images so that I can start from a fresh, known state at the beginning of each test. This has worked really well so that I can install software on different OS flavors or with other/different apps and drivers loaded. This makes it super simple to duplicate or nearly duplicate a customer's environment when addressing issues that crop up.
Now I'm tasked with doing something similar for Mac OS X. I'm far less familiar with this OS and didn't really see the same sort of thing available. I noted that the server version of 10.5 might allow this, but I'm not running that here. I've got access to 10.5 on a Mac Book and one of those Mac Minis.
Has anyone used Time Machine to put their test Mac box into a known state? Or do you have other ideas? I'm also interested in a solution for 10.4 since some of my customers run "Tiger".
I tend to test things that don't manipulate the global computer state (i.e. a lot of well written Cocoa applications) with the "Guest" account. Since Tiger (I think), the effects of using this account are wiped at logout, so you can easily get a virgin environment again.
By default, Time Machine excludes certain paths from backup. This could be detrimental to your testing strategy, depending on the system resources that your software touches. See this article for information on the exclusions. At a bare minimum, if you are going to use Time Machine to rollback, make sure nothing you are testing depends on any of the excluded files.
But, I think there is a better alternative, if you can live with Mac OS X Server: VMWare Fusion provides support for virtualizing instances of Mac OS X Server Leopard. Then you can use the same strategy you used for Windows.
From http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/features.html
VMware Fusion boasts the most complete
OS support, supporting more than 60
operating systems in a virtual
machine, including Windows XP, Windows
Vista, and even Mac OS X Server.
Keep in mind, you cannot virtualize Mac OS X Client due to license restrictions, though.
An alternative (perhaps more lightweight) solution that I just found recently is an app called RooSwitch. It lets you swap configurations for an application. So you could have a bunch of different prefs files, cache files, etc for your app and create a named configuration for it. You can create multiple configurations to test new user setup, or to reproduce an issue using a customer's data without losing your own config. RooSwitch then lets you switch between all these different configs.
I haven't used it myself yet, but heard about it on a podcast recently and thought it sounded useful for my own development and testing.