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Why can't you install Mac OS X on Windows?

J

Juan TS

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 3, 2011
72
2
London, UK
This is a question that I ask myself for a long time. Why can you install windows on a Mac but you can't install OS X on a windows machine?

They both use Intel processors and Virtual machine can handle OS X on windows!

Why?
 
Juan TS said:
I already know hackintosh, but it is a mess sometimes, due to the drivers, as you said.

But is it Apple which won't allow to install OS X on windows?
Click to expand...

Yes, it is because of Apple. They don't want to sell OS X, they want to sell Macs.

Apple is a hardware company, not a software company.
 
Apple does put some code in to check to see if it is a real Mac.
And as others say, apple wants to sell machines with osx.
Apple tried to sell it separately years back and it almost broke the company. Apple also has lots of reasons for not selling to run on windows machines, such as the problem of supporting way way too many different hardware configurations. The multitude of hardware configs drives the windows kernel developers crazy.
 
old-wiz said:
Apple does put some code in to check to see if it is a real Mac.
And as others say, apple wants to sell machines with osx.
Apple tried to sell it separately years back and it almost broke the company. Apple also has lots of reasons for not selling to run on windows machines, such as the problem of supporting way way too many different hardware configurations. The multitude of hardware configs drives the windows kernel developers crazy.
Click to expand...

That makes a lot of sense.
Then why so Microsoft allows Windows to be installed on Mac's? This way people will feel more attracted to buy Mac's since it supports both.
 
Juan TS said:
That makes a lot of sense.
Then why so Microsoft allows Windows to be installed on Mac's? This way people will feel more attracted to buy Mac's since it supports both.
Click to expand...

Microsoft wants to sell as many copies of windows as possible. They don't care about the hardware.
 
Juan TS said:
But is it Apple which won't allow to install OS X on windows?
Click to expand...
Apple doesn't go out of its way to support a wide variety of components and manufacturers (note: this is an understatement). They want to have a lot of influence over the hardware that goes into their computers, which has its benefits (what works, works well) and its problems (most things don't work).
 
I just read today that virtualization will be a standard feature of Windows 8. This should mean you won't need to download virtualbox before you create a virtual hackintosh on your windows box.
 
mountains said:
Those rose-shaded glasses must be nice.
Click to expand...

So glad you took time to post utter rubbish in response to a simple post of mine. I've never heard anyone argue before that Bill Gates was a genius programmer. Granted, he has done some programming, but his contribution to the computer world was not in the form of great code or software. He's a businessman first, programmer being a good bit further down the list.

jW
 
Mal said:
So glad you took time to post utter rubbish in response to a simple post of mine. I've never heard anyone argue before that Bill Gates was a genius programmer. Granted, he has done some programming, but his contribution to the computer world was not in the form of great code or software. He's a businessman first, programmer being a good bit further down the list.

jW
Click to expand...

I believe in unicorns too.
 
r0k said:
I just read today that virtualization will be a standard feature of Windows 8. This should mean you won't need to download virtualbox before you create a virtual hackintosh on your windows box.
Click to expand...

It's there already in W7 if you have the enterprise or (I think) the Ultimate version. It's called Windows XP mode, but it's effectively the old Virtual PC product. Whether it'll support whatever you need to run OS X is a different question.
 
r.j.s said:
Yes, it is because of Apple. They don't want to sell OS X, they want to sell Macs.

Apple is a hardware company, not a software company.
Click to expand...

Well according to Steve Jobs, Apple is "fundamentally a software company."

But the secret behind Apple is that they make both the hardware and software. It's not that they aren't a software company; it's that de-coupling the hardware and software would kill what makes Apple different from Microsoft and other software companies.
 
speacock said:
It's there already in W7 if you have the enterprise or (I think) the Ultimate version. It's called Windows XP mode, but it's effectively the old Virtual PC product. Whether it'll support whatever you need to run OS X is a different question.
Click to expand...

It's unlikely that Win8 will be able to run OSx in a virtual machine - it's against Apple's EULA, and Apple could file a lawsuit. Microsoft plays it clean most of the time.
 
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