Over the weekend, we reported that the 4.1 update to VMWare Fusion allowed users to virtualize Leopard and Snow Leopard; a strict violation of OS X’s licensing terms.
At the time, we supposed this was a conscious decision on VMWare’s part to leave Leopard and Snow Leopard virtualization up to the user. But no, nothing of the sort: it’s just a bug VMWare’s going to patch.
Over on their blog, VMWare writes:
VMware Fusion 4.1 was released late last week and includes many great improvements. One change was the introduction of a new license verification step for users to verify they are in compliance with the OS licensing terms.
When the license verification step was added in VMware Fusion 4.1 the server edition check was omitted. We are preparing an update.
In other words, if you need Leopard and Snow Leopard virtualization, don’t patch. Bummer for devs who work on Lion systems who want to ensure past compatibility.