I Agree with Gus: VMware Mac OS X Virtualization rocks!

Recently Gus Mueller posted about how VMware with a virtualized instance of Mac OS X is a dream come true for him. It's also a dream come true for me. The ability to run Mac OS X on a virtual machine instance has been something that's been on my wish-list for a while now. Backing up all my data and reinstalling all my apps so that I can install the current version of Mac OS X and then create another partition for the developer seed of Mac OS X is a pain in the butt and overall wiping my HD and reinstalling Mac OS X is something I only like to do when a new major revision of Mac OS X comes out like 10.5, 10.6, etc to avoid any problems and clear out the clutter. Also if I have to reboot to boot into a different version of OS X I feel like it requires a lot of planning to decide when I should boot into the other version of OS X, how long I should spend in it and what exactly I am working on when in the new version of OS X (not to mention you don't have your regular apps,etc), however with virtualization I can multitask and work on 2 things at once or switch between the 2 versions of Mac OS X more flexibly. I'd like to use this as a means to install say Snow Leopard and develop on that which can fit into my workflow very easily as it could fit in its own space and thus I can keep developing on Leopard and then switch to a space running Snow Leopard. I can only imagine the possibilities if I became a Mac Indie of how VMware with virtualized instances of Mac OS X could fit into my workflow with features like snapshots. This also takes VMware from being that app you have to run in order to run Windows XP/Vista so you can do your homework or just work on it because there's not a Mac version of that app or your client/teacher has to run your work on XP/Vista to a true Mac app. It's no longer a "this thing runs Windows" app it's a "this thing runs another instance of Mac OS X on Mac OS X!" which sounds a 1000x more exciting. I do also agree with Gus that Apple should allow the Mac OS X Client Versions to be virtualized as well and not just the Mac OS X Server version, but that is up to Apple legal. When I was flying back from WWDC, I got on my plane and a woman came to me frantically saying that she had a ticket for another better seat and wanted to trade seats with me so she could be with her children. I agreed and got bumped up to Economy Plus with plenty of leg room and more importantly sat right next to some guy working for VMware. To my surprise he was running Mac OS X Leopard Server in VMware, however I was tired and at the time I think I remember hearing something about how Apple was allowing this, so I thought "huh that's nice." He asked me if I had my snow leopard DVD on me so he could try that out, but I believe I put it in my checked luggage so I didn't get to see that, which is a shame because I think I'll try that soon and see if it works. After I got back and had time to rest I soon realized just how significant seeing Mac OS X virtualized was. All in all the future for Mac Developers working on 2 versions of Mac OS X is just looking better and better thanks to developments like this. By the way, a big Thank you goes out to all the twitterers who suggested that I go with VMware, i've been very much enjoying it ever since I switched from Parallels. Update: Heres a Blog Entry from VMware about Leopard Server virtualization and here is a YouTube Video showing it in Action