# Renting a Mac virtual machine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 1, 2013, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renting-a-mac-virtual-machine/645740 "2013-01-01T06:55:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aaelghat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c5a1d2/32.png) [@aaelghat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaelghat)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renting-a-mac-virtual-machine/645740/1 "2013-01-01T06:55:30Z")
I’m in need of a Macintosh to develop an iPhone app, and my understanding is that the Xcode toolset required only runs on a Mac. However, this is the only thing the Mac would be used for, and I’m wondering if instead of paying $1,000+ to purchase a Macintosh, I could just pay a monthly fee for a Macintosh virtual machine that I could somehow remote into. Does such a thing exist? If it makes any difference, I live in Chicago. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renting-a-mac-virtual-machine/645740/2 "2013-01-01T07:12:01Z")
I haven’t used them, but I’ve heard good things about [Macincloud](http://www.macincloud.com/). Monthly plans start at $20 and there is a one-day free trial. ---
**Author:** ![aaelghat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c5a1d2/32.png) [@aaelghat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaelghat)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renting-a-mac-virtual-machine/645740/3 "2013-01-01T08:07:04Z")
Cool! I had never heard of them, but that seems perfect - thanks! ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renting-a-mac-virtual-machine/645740/4 "2013-01-01T09:58:50Z")
Depending on your connection speed that might be a frustrating experience. A mac mini costs $599, thats what a lot of developers in your case use. Or you can buy a Mountain Lion USB stick from the Apple store, follow the instructions on [TonymacX86.com](http://TonymacX86.com) and install Mac OS X on most windows boxes if you have an Intel CPU / Chipset and an Nvidia card. > **[Home](https://www.tonymacx86.com/)** And yes Hackintoshes are stable enough to do work on once you get them running. It’s only the installation which can be fiddly. I Have a Hackintosh system running 10.7.2 which I use for production video work. It’s much faster than the last model mac pro tower and was half the price. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renting-a-mac-virtual-machine/645740/5 "2013-01-01T10:23:08Z")
Apparently if you jailbreak your iPhone, you can use the Cydia app to upload the iphone-gcc toolchain/compiler onto your iPhone and then just compile, link, and run apps on the phone itself (though obviously development/typing will have to take place on your computer). As far as I can tell, apps developed using this method can still be submitted to the official app store same as any other. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renting-a-mac-virtual-machine/645740/6 "2013-01-01T12:09:57Z")
Jragon that sounds like a world of pain. Installing OS X on a wintel box is far easier and gives you a full working desktop system. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renting-a-mac-virtual-machine/645740/7 "2013-01-01T12:42:08Z")
I tried macincloud. I have a very speedy FIOS connection. The macincloud machine was slower than molasses. Instead I installed Mac OS in a VMWare VM on a Windows 7 machine. When I need to run the compile, I switch to the VM, move the files over and compile. The VM is almost as fast as a real Mac - certainly fast enough for these purposes. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renting-a-mac-virtual-machine/645740/8 "2013-01-01T14:47:30Z")
You can pick up a used mac mini for far less than than a new one. I got one for a friend for 400 bucks, and that was several years ago. You can probably find one for 2-300, today. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renting-a-mac-virtual-machine/645740/9 "2013-01-01T21:42:44Z")
You could just buy a copy of mac OS and install it into a VM on your own local machine via something like virtualbox or vmware. eta…looks like Terr beat me to it… ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renting-a-mac-virtual-machine/645740/10 "2013-01-02T05:43:49Z")
Does it need to be an Intel Mac? I’ll bring a G4 over and give it to you just to get it out of my closet, or sell you a big heavy G5 tower for $100. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renting-a-mac-virtual-machine/645740/11 "2013-01-02T05:53:16Z")
It’s been years since we needed such a service, but renting an actual, physical Mac was cost effective and easy. This was turn of the century New York City. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renting-a-mac-virtual-machine/645740/12 "2013-01-02T11:26:35Z")
You’ll need to do some additional research to see how hardware specific the toolset is. As a general rule, I would agree with those who’ve said you can probably get away with a virtual machine version of a mac to run the software. In that case, based on my limited experience, without a doubt I think that the VMWare product VMPlayer is by far the best choice. I was able to use it to run an old SCSI tape drive under Win 98 on a 64 bit OS so I was pretty impressed. Virtual Box and whatever else I tried were DOA. However even that wouldn’t work with the really ancient SCSI cards I had. So there are limits. I suspect that it won’t be an issue, but you never know. If you can find out specifically what the hardware requirements on the mac are, that might help you determine if a VM will work. Or . . . since VMPlayer is free, you could just give it a shot. ---
**Author:** ![aaelghat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c5a1d2/32.png) [@aaelghat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaelghat)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renting-a-mac-virtual-machine/645740/13 "2013-01-03T22:10:52Z")
Thanks for all the responses. I think I’ll sign-up for a MacInCloud trial on Monday. Their FAQ’s say for good performance you should have \>1Mbps upload speed and \<150ms Ping/latency. I have a synchronous 10 MB connection, so hopefully I’ll have good performance. If that doesn’t work, I’ll explore the virtual machine or Hackintosh route. Thanks again - my eyes were opened by this thread.