Is it legal to use Macintosh virtual machine hosted by Windows operating system? If yes, please suggest recommended hardware and license cost?

OSX can only legally run on Apple hardware, even under VM. There are very few conditions that allow OSX under VM anyway, and Lion/ML/Mavericks do not allow it.

steve359 wrote:

There are very few conditions that allow OSX under VM anyway, and Lion/ML/Mavericks do not allow it.

In fact they do explictly allow it, as long as the host machine is also a Mac. It can be very handy to test software in beta or older versions of the OS while running in a VM. Plus, if you need Windows for whatever reason, you can buy a Mac and run Windows in the VM instead of the the other way around. Use the latest and greatest Mac running Mavericks for full-time, native work. Use VMs for betas, regression test, and Windows.

Thanks for the clarification.

I thought that at least some version of OSX could not be VM in Mavericks, but if you say it is allowed so be it.

I do not VM Windows on my MBP because I have no need.

steve359 wrote:

I thought that at least some version of OSX could not be VM in Mavericks, but if you say it is allowed so be it.

There are some people who dispute the details of what "the software" means in the license. From my point of view, I have a license to run all of those versions each license explicity says I can use a VM. I don't think it is illegal or even unseemly. The only version restriction I know of that the new VM policy only applies to Lion or greater. 10.6 could only be run on a VM if you had the expensive server version. The licenses do explicity list the acceptable uses and that includes OS X Server, software development, and non-commercial use. They don't want people selling online access to OS X, that's all.

I do not VM Windows on my MBP because I have no need.

Me neither. I used to though. Funny how a Mac was the most critical tool in debugging web sites on various versions of IE 🙂

I don't even run OS X in a VM anyway. It does work but it is quite resource intensive. Maybe if I had one of those new Mac Pros...