Lion users can run old AC versions in a (Snow) Leopard VM

[Karl Ottenstein]

Upgrading to OS X Lion means losing the ability to run PowerPC (PPC) apps, as Rosetta is no longer supported. The alternative to date has been to keep a bootable Snow Leopard partition to run early version of ArchiCAD (etc) if needed.

This article notes that the latest version of VMWare Fusion now allows the creation of Snow Leopard or Leopard (non-server) virtual machines:
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/11/20/vmware-fusion-now-allows-virtualization-of-mac-os-x-leopard-and-...

This is far superior to having to reboot to run older PPC software - such as versions of ArchiCAD earlier than AC 10.

(Personally, I've been locked into Parallels Desktop for some years and am now waiting to see if Parallels 7 will get an update that also allows for Snow Leopard VMs. If not, Fusion may be in my future...)

Cheers,
Karl

[Gerald Hoffman]

Carl,
I just did a search on this and someone apparently has been successful in installing Snow Leopard on Parallels. See thread.
http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=114892

I have just made the switch to a MacBook Pro after the recent update and have installed Parallels 7 & Windows 7 so far which I thought I could use for older versions of AC if I needed them.

Most of my projects are now if 14 & 15 so am only going to install if needed. So far am loving my new MacBook which I received last week but it is quite different and has a bit of learning curve after being a Windoz guy for 20 some years. Oh and I don't know if it is generally known but the intel Macs will support 16 GB of ram which I have installed.

Cheers,

[Karl Ottenstein]

Hi Gerald,

Actually, that article was about Snow Leopard Server - a more expensive OS than Snow Leopard (client). The novel thing about the Fusion announcement is that Snow Leopard (and Leopard) client OS can be installed to enable running PPC apps.

I agree, that running Windows is another way to run old versions of AC (if/when needed). But, many existing Mac users have been reluctant to upgrade to Lion because many of their other old programs will no longer be able to run... This Fusion announcement is a reasonable solution for them.

(For a Windows switcher, that's not an issue of course.)

Enjoy your Mac!

Karl

[Eduardo Rolon]

and now they are going to remove it since it was a mistake.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/11/vmware-we-didnt-mean-to-allow-leopard-snow-leopard-vms.ars...

It may be that if you install the regular versions now Fusion might not remove the VM with the later update.

[Karl Ottenstein]

ejrolon wrote:
and now they are going to remove it since it was a mistake.

😞 Just saw that and came here to post - you beat me to it, Eduardo. 😉