OSX (and VMs)

[Malintex_Terek]

I have a friend who is doing something quite mad - trying to run a program designed for Windows on a Mac. Predictably, the endeavour has run afoul, with several problems I simply cannot troubleshoot from a PC. So, I need a test-bed to experiment with the program under his conditions, and the best solution would be to run a VM emulation of OSX.

But, I don't know anything about Macs except how to use them. Is OSX a stand-alone operating system, like the various Windows incarnations, or can it only be obtained when purchasing a Mac? Is OSX Lion (which is what I get when I Google "buy OSX") actually what I see on a Mac, or is it some kind of iPhone App?

[Kirjava444]

You can buy a disc for previous version of OS X, but Lion can only be purchased on the Mac App Store while running a previous version (or by buying a computer with it already installed of course).

[Elisabeth Heart]

There are Mac VMs for Windows (and reciprocally) but but they are resources hungry and troubleshooting that way will be hard and heavy. Best way would be to find an existing VM rather than creating one.

On the other side, running a windows program on a mac is quite easy. Recommending Parallel Desktop or VMware Fusion.

OSX is a standalone operating system but it is designed to run on specific hardware.
OSX Lion is indeed the operating system, not an app.