I’ve seen on libosinfo / osinfo-db · GitLab that, apparently, download information for both Microsoft Windows and Apple’s macOS operating systems are already available. I also noticed on the Boxes issue tracker that quite a few users seem to have installed Windows VMs.
Do those users all download the ISOs manually and install the OS via + > Install from file…? Or is there a way to get an updated OS list from the source mentioned earlier, to then search and install it via + > Download OS?
When I go to the latter and type “Windows” or “macOS” in the search input box, I get an empty list as a result.
We can’t provide downloads for non-freely available operating systems, so there’s no download for Windows or MacOS.
Do those users all download the ISOs manually and install the OS via + > Install from file…?
Yes! You can obtain their installation images from their official sources and chose the “install from file” option.
osinfo-db also helps us with various VM preferences such as virtual devices, drivers, and virtualization requirements. So osinfo-db is not only a list of download links. That’s why you find entries for Windows and MacOS in osinfo-db (but no downloads).
IIRC, Windows is “free” - as in free beer only - for evaluation, and isn’t it allowed to download macOS if you have Apple hardware with a valid license? If that’s all true, there would be no legal consequences for including them in the list, or would there be any?
Would it be acceptable to add a configuration option to allow “non-free” images to be included in the list for downloads? Much like Debian and NixOS allow to have “non-free” packages included in installation candidates.
IMHO, it’s a question of convenience, a user-centric decision, and that’s very close to the principles of GNOME. Personally, it would help me a lot to give the power of virtualization to my family members.
