

VMware made changes in subsequent versions of the Fusion app that prevents virtualization of any client version of OS X that predates OS X Lion. Shortly after VMware Fusion released version 4.1 it came to their attention that the Apple license changes did not affect OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard, and only allowed virtualization of OS X Lion client software and later. You can still run your favorite older apps in Fusion's virtual environment.
#Mac os x snow leopard upgrade
Now that it's possible to virtualize Leopard or Snow Leopard in VMware Fusion 4.1 or later, there's no reason not to upgrade to OS X Lion. This lack of support for pre-Intel apps caused quite a few Mac users to forego upgrading to Lion. Why is this important? One of the major beefs many Mac users have about Lion is its inability to run older applications that were written for PowerPC processors. Fusion 4.1 can run Leopard and Snow Leopard clients in a virtual environment on the Mac. For the rest of us, it didn't seem like such a big deal, at least not until VMware, one of the leading developers of virtualization software, released a new version of Fusion. That was good news for some, mostly developers and those in the IT industry who need to run server environments. The only caveat was that the virtualization application had to be running on a Mac. When Apple released OS X Lion, it changed the license agreement to allow customers to run both the client and server versions of Lion in a virtual environment.
