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Run macOS Software on Linux

darlinghq.org

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Re: Run macOS Software on Linux

#11

Post by [deleted] »

dylan604 wrote: post #7
rvz wrote: post #6

This is the Darling project which aims to run macOS software on Linux for both Intel and ARM64. But you are probably looking for this: > Does it support GUI apps? > Almost! This took us a lot of time and effort, but we finally have basic experimental support for running simple graphical applications. It is still far away from running your favorite mac GUI apps like Logic Pro or Xcode, but it is a work in progress but…

What allows Wine to run so many Windows apps that there's not an equivalent for MacOS? Is it lack of interest? Is it a technical thing? I'd even be willing to limit to x86 apps. Or maybe there is and I'm just really out of touch??

[deleted]

Re: Run macOS Software on Linux

#12

Post by dylan604 »

tengwar2 wrote: post #10
dylan604 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What allows Wine to run so many Windows apps that there's not an equivalent for MacOS? Is it lack of interest? Is it a technical thing? I'd even be willing to limit to x86 apps. Or maybe there is and I'm just really out of touch??

At a guess: the "killer apps" are things like MS Office and Photoshop, and since they are usually available on both Windows and Mac, there's not such a pressing demand to support similar functionality for Mac apps if the Windows version is easy to obtain.

That's such an obvious answer that I'm honestly embarrassed that it did not occur to me. Thanks for not rubbing it in!

Re: Run macOS Software on Linux

#13

Post by GeekyBear »

dylan604 wrote: post #7
rvz wrote: post #6

This is the Darling project which aims to run macOS software on Linux for both Intel and ARM64. But you are probably looking for this: > Does it support GUI apps? > Almost! This took us a lot of time and effort, but we finally have basic experimental support for running simple graphical applications. It is still far away from running your favorite mac GUI apps like Logic Pro or Xcode, but it is a work in progress but…

What allows Wine to run so many Windows apps that there's not an equivalent for MacOS? Is it lack of interest? Is it a technical thing? I'd even be willing to limit to x86 apps. Or maybe there is and I'm just really out of touch??

GNUstep ran early MacOS apps on Linux after Apple bought Next and adopted their APIs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNUstep

I don't think the project kept up with changes to the APIs over the decades compared to how well the Wine project kept up with changes in Windows.

Re: Run macOS Software on Linux

#14

Post by ay »

I went down a deep but entertaining rabbit hole in the other direction for fun: https://github.com/ayourtch-llm/fakelinux - initially with the idea “just replace the syscalls in the executable with some sort of a trap and handle that”.

It almost worked, unfortunately MacOS reserves x18 for platform purposes and Linux doesn’t.

The result is some sort of pretty mad contraption which works sufficiently often to compile aarch64 Linux VPP and its dependencies on the Mac using Linux gcc :)

I suppose with some polish it might be useful for something..

Re: Run macOS Software on Linux

#15

Post by crazysim »

dylan604 wrote: post #7
rvz wrote: post #6

This is the Darling project which aims to run macOS software on Linux for both Intel and ARM64. But you are probably looking for this: > Does it support GUI apps? > Almost! This took us a lot of time and effort, but we finally have basic experimental support for running simple graphical applications. It is still far away from running your favorite mac GUI apps like Logic Pro or Xcode, but it is a work in progress but…

What allows Wine to run so many Windows apps that there's not an equivalent for MacOS? Is it lack of interest? Is it a technical thing? I'd even be willing to limit to x86 apps. Or maybe there is and I'm just really out of touch??

While the productivity apps are mentioned in the other comments of this reply, games are another reason. There are far more games on Windows to port and handle than macOS games. And in that case, you got a financial desire in the form of Valve and its Steam store. macOS games tend to be ports from Windows and are usually less featureful.

Re: Run macOS Software on Linux

#17

Post by asveikau »

GeekyBear wrote: post #13
dylan604 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What allows Wine to run so many Windows apps that there's not an equivalent for MacOS? Is it lack of interest? Is it a technical thing? I'd even be willing to limit to x86 apps. Or maybe there is and I'm just really out of touch??

GNUstep ran early MacOS apps on Linux after Apple bought Next and adopted their APIs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNUstep I don't think the project kept up with changes to the APIs over the decades compared to how well the Wine project kept up with changes in Windows.

Win32 has a little less churn than AppKit used to. If you support the API surface of winxp from 25 years ago you can run a lot of stuff. Most teams inside Windows at MSFT also try to leave older APIs alone and introduce stuff in an additive fashion. Apple, by contrast, historically has app compatibility as a non-goal.

I said "used to" because anecdotally, I had a personal project I haven't released anywhere target AppKit, I haven't been maintaining it because life is busy, I recently rebuilt it for the first time in a long time and I was shocked that everything worked. ~8 years ago, you would need to do some porting to a new major release once per year. I skipped that maintenance for many releases and didn't need to change a single line. This tells me that desktop apps are not at all an area of major focus for them lately. Maybe swiftui is getting all the attention. They are doing something more resembling Microsoft, leaving the old shit alone.

Re: Run macOS Software on Linux

#19

Post by cyberax »

dylan604 wrote: post #7
rvz wrote: post #6

This is the Darling project which aims to run macOS software on Linux for both Intel and ARM64. But you are probably looking for this: > Does it support GUI apps? > Almost! This took us a lot of time and effort, but we finally have basic experimental support for running simple graphical applications. It is still far away from running your favorite mac GUI apps like Logic Pro or Xcode, but it is a work in progress but…

What allows Wine to run so many Windows apps that there's not an equivalent for MacOS? Is it lack of interest? Is it a technical thing? I'd even be willing to limit to x86 apps. Or maybe there is and I'm just really out of touch??

> What allows Wine to run so many Windows apps that there's not an equivalent for MacOS?

A lot of work done over 3 decades. Wine also started when Win32 was something comprehensible by one person, so they could build it up slowly.

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