First, it will be recalled with Leo, Apple allows users to virtualize its system software provided of course that it is run from a Mac. Previously, the Apple brand store for this possibility to edit "Server" Mac OS X Parallels Desktop is the first virtualization solution to allow it (without having to tinker) but there is no doubt that VMware and Oracle exploit this feature very soon in their respective software.
Installing OS X Lion is simple, but slow. Parallels Wizard starts the recovery partition and prompts you to install Mac OS X 10.7 on your virtual machine. The biggest problem with this approach is that it is better not to hurry. The installer must before starting his work to recover the archive to install OS X Leo. It is not without problems for those who have acquired the USB Mac OS X 10.7. Despite a good ADSL connection, the installation process has taken two to three hours. After the installation is completed, the virtual machine restarts.
Then, like any virtual machine, you are prompted to install the Parallels Tools. The application mounts a disk image on your desktop. You just have to start the installation as with any software. As with any virtual machine, Parallels allows you to set a range of parameters: amount of memory, graphics acceleration, storage ... As with any Windows virtual machine, you can also exchange files between your Mac and Mac virtualized. In performance, the results are quite honest. Your Mac is more powerful and more RAM you have, the better it will be. It should be noted that the coherence mode that allows you to melt the windows of Windows applications on your Mac can not be activated, but the interest of this feature with Mac OS X is very limited.
2010 on a MacBook Air Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz with 4 GB of RAM, performance is completely honest. As always with virtualization, we feel the limits of this process as soon as you begin to make sustained use of the graphics processor. On the other hand, the fan of the MacBook Air can be heard more than usual.
Out of curiosity, we tried to install Snow Leopard in a virtual machine. In this case, the application displays a short message reminding that Apple does not allow the virtualization of this version of Mac OS X. It is not officially unofficially making do, it is always possible. In any case, it is unfortunate for those who depend on it for one reason or another Rosetta. Recall that a demo version of Parallels Desktop 7 [260 MB] functional for 15 days is available for download.
