Is it possible to run an older Mac OS via a virtual machine on a current Mac OS?

I've tried a few older OS versions on our M2 and M4 minis.

VMware and Parallels: If it's an Intel version of anything (macOS or Windows), it won't run. You can't even install them. Any older version of macOS you want to emulate must support Apple Silicon.

UTM: Free, GUI front end version of the command line QEMU app. I did manage to get Windows 10 Intel installed, but it was so insanely slow you could only call it unusable. Windows 7 Home Edition was better, but still slow. Windows XP is actually pretty fast, considering UTM is emulating everything: an Intel CPU, graphics hardware, etc.

But, I couldn't install Snow Leopard as UTM has no emulation for Apple's older hardware. I didn't bother to try any older Apple Silicon capable versions of macOS in UTM as those do work in VMware, and run almost at native speed.

Since Mojave is all Intel code, it will not run on any M series Mac. Not natively or in a VM.

The oldest guest operating system you can run in a Virtual Machine on that M1 Mac Mini would be Big Sur, and it does not support 32-bit applications on either Intel or Apple Silicon Macs. If that is an 8GB RAM mini, then no Virtual Machine would have the RAM resources for any guest operating system.

Paul Valerio wrote:

I have some old project files that only run on discontinued 32-bit apps. I have kept an old Airbook running Mac OS 10.12 (Sierra, I think) so I can still run those apps when I need them. It comes in handy when I need to export data and charts from old projects. That old Airbook is on its last legs; would there be a way to install a VM running Sierra within my M1 Mac Mini, using something like Parallels or VMware Fusion?

As you've been advised, you can only run VMs that use the same architecture as the host OS, be that Intel or Apple silicon.

However, if you don't need Sierra per se, and those 32-bit apps would run in Mojave, get yourself a ?2019? Mac (as you probably know already, Catalina 10.15 and later won't run 32-bit).

Your best option is a probably a refurbished computer that can run Sierra and get some more time out of you apps. That means you are probably looking at a 2017 MacBook Air, which is the last MBA that supports Sierra as its earliest OS version.

e.g., https://eshop.macsales.com/configure-my-mac/apple-macbook-air-13-inch-mid-2017?sku=UAKJ1FS2XXXXXXB