VMWare Fusion Free for Non-Commercial Use (Paratext on a Mac)

Question

I wanted to share this info, in case some people didn’t know.

VMWare offers a free version of their VMWare Fusion Player virtual machine software for non-commercial use. You just need to register an account and then will be able to download it for free.

More information can be found here: VMware Fusion Player – Personal Use License

Answer 1

Looking for a new Mac to run Paratext? Be aware, Paratext will NOT work on a virtual machine on an M1 or M1X Mac. The Apple Silicon Macs can only install a special version of Windows in a virtual machine, Windows for ARM.

These days when looking at new Macs, it seems like most models now have the M1 or the new M1X chip. You can find Intel Macs online but it may take some extra searching. It may help to look for refurbished Macs.

More info:

Paratext

Can I Install Paratext on a Mac? - Paratext

There is no MacOS version of Paratext, but there are a variety of free and paid solutions to run Paratext on a Mac, including VWMare, VirtualBox, and Parallels.

Comments

Is there any indication that Paratext (or Paratext Lite) will work on ARM processors in the future?

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I have the same question james_post, and a bit of bewilderment—Everything I’ve been able to find says that Windows on ARM runs standard x86 or x64 apps very well. And that the M1 runs it faster than on an Intel processor.

Even if Paratext did work OK on Windows on ARM right now, it’s important to note that Microsoft has said explicitly that it does not currently support running Windows on ARM in a VM on Mac and has given no indication that it will ever support this configuration. People who are running Windows on ARM on M1 Macs currently are using pre-released versions and are probably breaking the Microsoft license to do so.

Just to keep the record clear—“M1x” was a name that the media was using to refer to an upcoming enhancement of the M1 chip. Earlier this week the new “M1 Pro” and “M1 Max” chips were revealed, so there is no such thing as an “M1X Mac”.

Blessings,
LivingField

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Thanks for this info. I assume the limitation is that if the guest OS needs to run on an Intel processor, any virtualization engine will need to support an Intel processor, which rules out running standard Windows on Parallels, VMware Fusion, etc. I guess that should have been obvious, but it wasn’t to me.

Please keep us updated. For now, I can at least say that this news has helped me not covet one of these super-fast new MacBook Pros with a stellar display and a functional keyboard.

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We’re grateful that it helped, at least for now. Hopefully somebody can get this up and running, but for now, we don’t have a solution.

Also keep an eye on this thread, as it has more info about testing, etc: Apple M1 processor, Parallels and Paratext