Parallels has posted instructions on how to install the developer release of OS X Mavericks into its virtualization software. Installing the beta in a virtual machine allows developers to test their software in a secure environment on production machines, without endangering their day-to-day work.
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As you may have heard, Apple has released to its Developer Community a preview of the next version of OS X: OS X Mavericks. What is the easiest way to use a new operating system, especially a early preview of an operating system currently still under development? In a virtual machine in Parallels Desktop, of course. So, the Engineering team at Parallels has released Knowledge Base articles about installing OS X Mavericks in Parallels Desktop 8 and about installing Parallels Desktop 8 on a Mac that is running OS X Mavericks:
The company notes that users cannot install Mavericks into a clean virtual machine, but they can upgrade an already existing OS X virtual machine to Mavericks with only a few minor changes.
Top Rated Comments
It allows you to run beta OSes such as Mavericks without the risk of messing up your main OS.
Second, some older software cannot run on the latest OSes, so you run the software in older versions in the virtual machine.
There might be other reasons, which I don't know of.
Two good reasons. I've done this for both reasons.
Software testing. I want to be sure my software runs well on different versions of the OS
Failure containment. If the new Beta OS blows up I don't want it to corrupt my "real" disks. the version running inside the VM can only destroy the VM image and those can be restored in minutes
is there a way to install Mavericks using VirtualBox?