Hey everyone! I'm currently working on a university project that requires .NET MAUI for the frontend, but my early 2015 Intel MacBook Pro running macOS 12 isn't able to run or debug any MAUI projects. I'm thinking about setting up a virtual machine to run Windows and install Visual Studio 2022, since I know it supports .NET MAUI development. I'm wondering if this setup is feasible in terms of performance and compatibility on my machine. Has anyone successfully done MAUI development in a VM on macOS? Which VM software would you recommend? Also, are there any potential issues I should be aware of, like emulation problems, performance bottlenecks, or debugging challenges? I've got limited time, so I'm looking for the fastest and most stable way to test and debug my MAUI app. Any advice or alternative suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
4 Answers
Yes, definitely! Using Parallels is a good choice since I use it myself, but VirtualBox is a solid free alternative. It might be a bit easier on your disk space compared to a dual-boot setup.
For running a virtual machine, I've used both Parallels and VMWare, but I'd personally recommend VMWare. It's pretty stable, and if you’re looking to save some space, VirtualBox is free and works fine, too. Also, if you're open to it, dual-booting with Boot Camp might be more effective for performance.
You should actually be able to run MAUI projects on your Mac, so I'm curious why you're limited there. A lot of folks use Rider, which works perfectly on macOS for .NET development without needing a VM.
If you want to install Windows on your Intel MacBook, your best bet is going with Boot Camp. It’s officially supported by Apple and it’ll give you better performance than a VM. Just make sure you have enough disk space (at least 64GB, but 128GB is recommended) and the Windows 10 ISO ready. Once that's done, the process is pretty straightforward!
Yeah, just be careful with the partitioning—formatting can be tricky at first. But it really helps to run Windows natively!