A new beta build of VirtualBox, Sun’s Oracle’s free x86 virtualization software, makes it possible to run Mac OS X as a guest operating system…no shenanigans or flaming hoops to jump through, just pop in the $30 retail Snow Leopard upgrade disc and go. This had previously only been possible with some awkward Hackintosh-style maneuvering, or using recent editions of commercial virtualization products.

At this early stage, performance is fairly sluggish, the screen size is fixed and there’s no sound support, but the OS otherwise appears to run feature-complete (including networking and USB). Hopefully future builds will ramp up to the level of functionality and performance that VirtualBox provides for other guest operating systems.

Installation tip: when you come to the step prompting for a target disk for installation (which will likely show no available volumes), run Disk Utility from the “Utilities” menu, format the virtual disk image you created when setting up the VM (Mac OS Extended, Journaled), then exit Disk Utility to return to the OS X installer. You can then select the newly-formatted virtual disk and proceed with installation.

[Aaron Nelson] of Hijinks Inc. wrote up how he installed OSX on his HP TouchSmart IQ507. It looks and works like you would expect, save for a few things. The touchscreen works, but the calibration is so far off it’s useless. The most important things, like ethernet and the memory card reader, work fine. [Nelson]‘s biggest frustration is that he has to disable the on board audio every time he logs in, so that the keyboard and mouse will be recognized. He is working on improvements, and would love to hear any suggestions you have.