Windows, earlier MacOS X, and Parallels

Question

I have a set of questions to ask about using Microsoft Windows, Parallels, and/or other similar products on my late-2012 Core i5 iMac, as well as on a late-2013 MacBook Pro with Retina Display. In addition, I have some other MacOS compatibility concerns.
Here's what I want to do:
I want to configure one or both computers with Parallels (or something similar) to be able to run MacOS 10.9 "Mavericks" alongside a recent flavor of Windows (probably Win 7) so I can run Windows software. I would also like to use Parallels (or whatever) to run a "virtual machine" so that I could run earlier versions of MacOS X that are incompatible with this current hardware. The most important (and possibly easiest) goal would be to run MacOS 10.6.8, which would be the last version of the MacOS to be compatible with some non-Apple peripheral equipment I have in my office.
Are these things possible, and what would I have to do to make it happen?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Walt_Atwood wrote:
Who do I talk to to clarify all of this?
Let's start with me...
It was a common Urban Myth that the virtualization of Snow Leopard in Lion, Mt. Lion and Mavericks on a Mac was a violation of the Snow Leopard EULA.  This myth has been largely debunked over the years since it was first floated, back when Lion was released in 2011.
To the extent that there are one or two members of this forum that just cannot let go of this myth for psuedo-intellectual purposes or otherwise, the decision by Apple to reduce the price of Snow Leopard Server by 95% to the same $20 price as Snow Leopard client rendered that debate MOOT!
For more information on running Snow Leopard in Parallels on a modern day (post 2011) Mac for the purposes of regaining access to Rosetta to run PowerPC applications, see this thread, which is both historical and instructional, and is the only source of continuing technical support for those users:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1365439
EVERYTHING you need to know is either contained in the first post in this thread, or specifically linked to it in the first post.
Here is Adobe's PowerPC CS2 Photoshop running in Snow Leopard in Parallels for use in Lion, Mt. Lion and Mavericks:
                              [click on images to enlarge]
OS X Tiger 10.4 was released in both PowerPC and Intel versions with Rosetta.  A German blogger posted about his successes in installing and running Intel Tiger in VMWare Fusion, although he backed off his claims that it would run in Fusion 4.0, when I challenged him about this boast.
I was able to duplicate his successes in installing Intel Tiger into VMWare Fusion 2.0, which will only run in Snow Leopard and not in Lion, Mt. Lion and Mavericks, but was never able to duplicate his later retracted claim that he then was able to upgrade and run it in Fusion 4.0:
And for those nostalgic about debating issues for which they have little or none of the requisite background; yes, Virginia, there is an Intel OS X 10.4 Tiger Server:
If there is a more modern attempt at successfully  running Tiger in VMWare Fusion: all the better!