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Is it legal to sell Mac OS X VPS running on linux host?


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Short version:

No, it is not legal.

 

Long version:

Apple legal

 

I would agree with smolderas. Apple have never gone after anyone just building a hackintosh and even white-listed some of the hackintosh community kernel extensions during 10.10/10.11 development. However if you try and make money from running OS X on non-Apple equipment they would probably come after you.

 

The classic case here was against Psystar Corporation who tried to sell hackintoshes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psystar_Corporation

 

I guess it depends on what legal jurisdiction you are in and how much of a risk you are willing to take.

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So to cut a long story short – if Apple finds out that I'm selling VPS with OS X, they will tell me that it's not ok and I can just shut down my project without going to jail? I'm okay with it until they tell me that it's a problem. I just want to make a service for developers who need a private OS X machine, but don't want to spend time on building their own hackintosh vm.

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So to cut a long story short – if Apple finds out that I'm selling VPS with OS X, they will tell me that it's not ok and I can just shut down my project without going to jail? I'm okay with it until they tell me that it's a problem. I just want to make a service for developers who need a private OS X machine, but don't want to spend time on building their own hackintosh vm.

 

I would expect they would also sue you. Very risky business but of course it is your choice. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

If the host machine is a legit Mac with original Apple hardware it's legal to host virtual machines with OS X on it.

 

But I don't know if it's legal to make money with that. But it probably isn't, since I can't find any hoster that offers OSX vServers and if it was legal, you could find them all over the place.

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If the host machine is a legit Mac with original Apple hardware it's legal to host virtual machines with OS X on it.

 

But I don't know if it's legal to make money with that. But it probably isn't, since I can't find any hoster that offers OSX vServers and if it was legal, you could find them all over the place.

https://macstadium.com/

 

There are plenty out there hosting OS X, but it must be on original Apple equipment.

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That is amazing, as Apple does not produce hardware that is capable of Enterprise class virtualization.

In fact they do not manufacture ANY Enterprise class hardware, period!

Although it is sad, that there is no class 0 type 1 virtualization on OS X host, the free Linux variants dominates the enterprise, so there is no marketplace for Apple there (IMHO)...

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The Macs in the data centre where I work are for builds of iOS and OS X apps. So really only used to manage continuous build process plus having the Apple certificates for final distribution (not allowed on the developers workstation). So I would suspect many of these hosters may be doing something similar for smaller companies. Just don't see a market for Apple enterprise level kit. There are some interesting stories at www.virtusllyghetto.com of companies and organisations using virtualised OS X.

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Pity Apple does not make ANY Enterprise hardware (virtualization or not)

Not even a file server machine (surely Server on Mac Mini with 2.5" 5.4K RPM drive, would not be considered by anybody nothing more than home product)

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