
A New Project To Run Mac OS X Binaries On Linux - buster
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTI0Njc
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moxie
"Darling also possesses some hope as the project is being worked on for a
diploma thesis research project by a university student..."

I would draw the exact opposite conclusion.

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jiggy2011
I've long suspected that having OS X compatibility for Linux would be easier
and more useful than Windows compatibility for many people. Due to their
similar underpinnings and less legacy stuff in OS X.

Being able to run XCode , Photoshop and Sequel Pro under Linux would certainly
make my life easier.

Whether Apple wants to kill this , support it or be indifferent would I
suppose depend on whether they feel threatened by Linux on the desktop.

They may even be happy to push people who are unhappy with the "iOSification"
of Apple towards Linux in the future.

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asveikau
Less legacy, eh? Well, I guess there has been less emphasis on compatibility
throughout the years, but NeXTSTEP is older than Windows NT...

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bjg
While I agree with your point, I'm not sure if Windows NT is the correct
comparison.

\- Windows 1.0 released November 1985 [1]

\- NextStep 1.0 releaed September 1988 [2]

1\. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_1.0> 2\.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXTSTEP>

~~~
asveikau
I felt NT was an apt comparison because not only is it the basis for the
current Windows, it also was their first 32-bit offering, i.e. where stuff got
serious. 16-bit Windows was a fairly different beast. 9x was certainly
influential but (1) is now dead and (2) came after NT, borrowed lots from NT
in the beginning. In light of this, drawing comparisons between 1.0 and Win8
doesn't seem all that appropriate to me.

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bjg
I see where you are coming from.

I guess my hesitation was caused by the assumption that while windows before
NT was all 16 bit / 32 bit hybrid; it's API's are still essentially the same
which is what you would care about when re-platting an API.

However I will concede my argument like a true gentlemen, as I now realize the
ABI is what we should care about. It is almost certainly different even if the
API's haven't fluxed that much, and that is what a re-platt project would most
care about.

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saurik
An older such project, that already works for numerous use cases (such as
running parts of Apple's toolchain) is maloader.

<https://github.com/shinh/maloader>

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runn1ng
actually, darling is based on maloader. (or, at least, uses parts of its code)

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Xuzz
I wonder if they could use anything from the Magenta project, an attempt to
make an iOS-compatible Linux implementation.

Website: <http://crna.cc/magenta.html> \+ <http://crna.cc/magenta_source.html>

HN discussion: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4087224>

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Zev
This mostly sits at a higher level than Magenta does -- you don't need kernel
support for Foundation/AppKit ABI compatibility.

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United857
Even if you just focused on console apps, that would be a huge milestone for
many folks.

One example: being able to run XCode's command line build tools to generate
iOS and Mac builds on our Linux CI boxes without a dedicated Mac build slave
would be huge.

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bitcartel
An interesting research project, but don't hold your breath. Apple's private
APIs are going to take a very long time to reverse engineer.

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codgercoder
Remember how exercised everyone got about Window's private APIs?

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bitcartel
Reminds me of Yellow Box
([http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/4B800F78-0F7...](http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/4B800F78-0F75-455A-9681-F186A4365805.html))

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throwaway2048
this has the potential to progress much faster, and much more completely than
WINE, after all OSX is already a POSIX system, so many of the elements are
already there.

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JulianMorrison
Surely POSIX is the least of it. Mac apps are built on an API that has been
much extended since the NeXT days and which even then was a complete wrapper
over the underlying Unix OS. Think "copying QT and the whole KDE ecosystem" to
get a grasp of the scale of it.

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rjknight
And without access to the source!

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todd3834
Full support for Photoshop is one of the main things that keep me from being
able to be fully linux

~~~
est
and OmniGraffle

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zem
that was the first app i thought of when i saw this. pretty much the only
piece of osx software i know of that is that much better than any of the
competition.

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rbanffy
I'd suggest going after source compatibility rather than binaries. It
shouldn't be that difficult to check an Xcode project for things incompatible
with GNUStep and offer a way to allow ProjectCenter to build binaries on and
to other platforms, provided the developer refrained to use Mac-only features.
It would be a nice way to collect hard data on what should be considered more
important for GNUStep to develop, generating countless other opportunities for
students pursuing various degrees.

BTW, is anyone building TextMate for platforms other than OSX?

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malkia
In similar vein, there is cocotron - a framework that implements Cocoa
(OpenSTEP), and other things - <http://www.cocotron.org>

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rcthompson
Darling = darlin' = DARwin on LINux?

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aclimatt
Yep. (The flashing cursor on the Wiki page gives it away.)

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bitwize
Interesting project, but probably runs afoul of a whole passel of Apple IP,
and so will get nowhere useful.

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leoh
Ouch. This is not going to be easy. There are some major differences in dylibs
versus so's in Linux.

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zaknanny
How long will this project be relevant considering that apple is planning on
switching its processors from intel to some apple unique processor soon? If it
is similar to the switch they made when switching to intel, nothing will be
compatible.

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fleitz
The project will never really be relevant. If you have a serious need to run
OS X probably already have OSX and a Mac.

If you need to simultaneously run Linux you install it in a VM.

This project like WINE for the most part will always be a "look what I can do"
type project. It's never going to be a rosetta type system designed to bridge
ecosystems as the VirtualBox / VMWare bridge already works quite well.

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stcredzero
Having been disgusted by security holes in Preview and the lack of viable
alternatives to Preview/Adobe Reader on OS X, I installed WINE and Foxit
Reader on my Macbook Pro. (And used Automator to have it launched as an OS X
app.) Google Chrome is ok for a PDF reader much of the time, but there are
some really annoying bugs in its PDF functionality. (Which especially impact
comics.)

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redial
Just out of curiosity, which security holes in Preview are you referring to?

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stcredzero
Google OS X PDF security holes.

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micampe
doesn't seem a situation so dire that it warrants being disgusted to the point
of installing wine to me.

[http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-
bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=apple+coregr...](http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-
bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=apple+coregraphics+PDF)

no vulnerabilities in 2012, one in 2011 and two in 2010.

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stcredzero
Note that Apple doesn't discuss vulnerabilities until after they are patched.
Will unpatched ones even show up there?

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micampe
so you are disgusted by something that may or may not exist?

CVE is public and collects both patched and unpatched known vulnerabilities
reported by vendors and independent parties.

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tonyoconnell
How lovely would it be to be able to run Adobe products on Linux? ... When
Apple decided to fuck over Adobe by killing Flash I though the perfect
countermove would be to release AdobeOS. They could crowd source the design
from its user base, port their products to Linux and be in a very strong
position to compete with OSX and Windows. Now that Apple has abandoned its old
users for the mass market there's room for an open source OS for the
designers, photographers and developers whose needs are not being met.

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nedzadk
Photoshop here i come :)

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djisjke
It already runs on Linux, thanks to wine:
[http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&...](http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=25607)

