steellogic
Level 1 (9 points)
Mac OS X

Q: What is the best virtual machine solution to run El Capitan in Mountain Lion?

Looking for the best solution to run El Capitan in a Mountain Lion mac. I just need to use El Capitan to run xcode.

 

There are 3 main reasons I am not upgrading my main system to El Capitan:

1. Apps I still rely on that are only optimized to work up up till 10.8

2. I want the convenience of not having to restart my computer to use 1 program.

3. Don't like spotlight or the UI interface in general of 10.11

 

Knowing that, what solution would you recommend so I can use El Capitan in the mountain lion environment.

I am only aware of vmware and parallels. Any other options I am missing? What would you recommend?

 

Thanks

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), iTunes 10.7

Posted on Aug 2, 2016 8:55 PM

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steellogic

Q: What is the best virtual machine solution to run El Capitan in Mountain Lion?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Aug 2, 2016 9:34 PM in response to steellogic
    Level 10 (270,056 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 2, 2016 9:34 PM in response to steellogic

    I'd recommend "don't bother." You don't like El Capitan so why do you want it? If you know how to partition a drive, then install El Capitan on a new drive partition.

  • by steellogic,

    steellogic steellogic Aug 2, 2016 9:50 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 2, 2016 9:50 PM in response to Kappy

    Thank for the reply,

     

    Using the latest version of Xcode is my main need for 10.11.

    Yes, I know how to partition for 10.11, but was going to do that as a last resort because of the inconvenience of having to shut down and restart to go back and forth

  • by Kappy,Helpful

    Kappy Kappy Aug 2, 2016 10:27 PM in response to steellogic
    Level 10 (270,056 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 2, 2016 10:27 PM in response to steellogic

    Then you can only hope to emulate using Parallels, but don't expect El Capitan to run very fast in emulation. OS X tends to be a slug when running as a VM; assuming you can get it to install and run. Don't plan to do any coding with Xcode in a VM. It will be too slow. It will prove more inconvenient than having to reboot the computer. BTW, it doesn't require shutting down. It only requires a restart. Not really that inconvenient, but then maybe you are in a hurry.

  • by Király,

    Király Király Aug 3, 2016 2:15 PM in response to steellogic
    Level 6 (9,807 points)
    Aug 3, 2016 2:15 PM in response to steellogic

    The license for El Capitan only allows for it to be installed in a virtual machine if the host Mac is already running El Capitan. Running Mountain Lion or any other different OS X version as the host is not permitted.

     

    A dual boot solution is the only one if you want to run both.