Installed Lion but I want run Snow Leopard as well

Question

I have installed Lion but I am having some issues with some apps. I thought that I could install Snow Leopard as a virtual machine so I could use those apps in SL, and still keep Lion.
Is that possible? Should I buy Snow Leopard or can I install this virtual machine using the DVD that I got when I bought my Mac?

Answer 1

Barry Fass-Holmes wrote:
Could you please provide evidence which supports your claim that it's "a myth?"
Not really. I also cannot provide evidence that the legends of King Arthur, or Atlantis, or Bigfoot are myths. The lack of evidence that they are true is enough to place them in the category of myth. The inability to prove them false does not make them true. The same holds for the myth that "Snow Leopard is not licensed to be run in a virtual machine on a host Mac running Lion." That can be disproved simply by reading the Snow Leopard SLA, in which no such prohibition exists.
I would be very interested in seeing where Apple's EULA for Snow Leopard, Lion, and/or Mountain Lion provides permission for users to install Snow Leopard in a virtual machine.
It isn't there. The idea that "it must be prohibited because the license does not specifically allow it" is absurd. If that method of interpreting licenses were correct, I could claim that running OS X while drinking coffee, or while wearing a three piece suit, or on a Mac in which the Apple logo has been covered over with a Detroit Tigers logo, are all prohibited, because the SLA doesn't explicitly permit them. Those are all absurd, of course; it is not a violation of the SLA to do any of those things. So it is with running Snow Leopard in a virtual machine. The license says that it must be a single copy only, running on Apple hardware. Running Snow Leopard in a virtual machine on a Mac with Lion as the host OS complies with the "one copy on Apple hardware" terms.
Lion's and Mountain Lion's EULAs do provide permission to install Lion or Mountain Lion (respectively) in a VM, but my reading of the EULAs is that Apple does not permit installation of Snow Leopard in a VM.
The 10.7 and 10.8 SLAs permit users to run up to three copies of the software simultaneously, one "directly" and up to two more in "virtual operating system environments". The 10.6 and earlier SLAs say one copy only, with no restriction on whether it is directly or in a virtual operating system environment. The term "directly" was added in the 10.7 and 10.8 licenses; it was not there in 10.6 and earlier. One copy of 10.6 running on Apple hardware is one copy of 10.6 running on Apple hardware, whether in a virtual machine or not.
Nowhere in the 10.6 SLA does it say that installing Snow Leopard in a VM is prohibited. Someone started that rumour and it has become one of the most pervasive bits of computer folklore in history. It is a myth.
I would be more than happy for you to demonstrate that I am incorrect.
I hope I have been helpful; let me know if there is any other information you need.