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Ask HN: Is there any WINE like software for running OS X software on Linux?

13 points by xstartup 9y ago

Why or why not? Is it simply impossible to build?

steanne 9y ago
darling? https://www.darlinghq.org/ https://www.darlinghq.org/
petecox 9y ago
You could try porting your code to GNUstep. http://gnustep.org/ http://gnustep.org/
miles 9y ago
There's the old PearPC project: https://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/pearpc https://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/pearpc "PearPC emulates a PPC Macintosh inside of Windows and Linux. It emulates a machine capable of running OS X versions up 10.1 to 10.4 (Tiger). PearPC does not emulate a Machine capable of running OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or greater. The emulated machine can also run Darwin and Linux." See also https://github.com/sebastianbiallas/pearpc https://github.com/sebastianbiallas/pearpc and http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2005/01/18/PearPC.html http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2005/01/18/Pea... .
orionblastar 9y ago
If there was, Apple might sue them for it. So far there are GNUStep and Darling but they are not ready for prime time. You can buy an old MacBook for $99 That can run an old MacOSX on it like 10.7 or under but it would only be a Core 2 Duo, but would use Boot camp to run Linux.
sgillen 9y ago
I’m sure it’s technically feasible, but it’s very labor intensive, there is very little demand (as far as I can tell), and there is a very high risk of a lawsuit.
guitarbill 9y ago
Last time I checked, it was possible to boot macOS in VirtualBox. What macOS-exclusive apps would be worth running in your opinion? The only one that I use is Photos, and maybe Pixelmator. So it'd probably be quicker just to write completely new software, which is what seems to happen. Also, Apple has a nasty habit of breaking things between macOS versions and messing with APIs. Maintaining a compat layer would be horrible.
- moron4hire 9y ago
  The only piece of Apple software I can't live without is XCode, to make iOS builds of my Unity3D apps.
  - guitarbill 9y ago
    Right. VirtualBox + overnight compiles might work (perf is going to suck). There exist cloud macOS offerings which work well, I've used them for iOS continuous integration. Depending on how much money those apps are making, could also be an option?
    - applecrazy 9y ago
      Travis CI is free for OSS projects and offers a pretty cool iOS build option: https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/languages/objective-c/ https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/languages/objective-c/
tinus_hn 9y ago
Wine is an absolutely amazing piece of software that’s easy to take for granted. There is a large library of software exclusive to Windows so there are enough people motivated to build it. There isn’t a whole lot of software exclusive to Mac OS X so it’s much more difficult to get enough people together to run such a project.
stuaxo 9y ago
Yes - The Darling project is exactly this: http://www.darlinghq.org/ http://www.darlinghq.org/ https://github.com/darlinghq/ https://github.com/darlinghq/ There's a lot of info on the website about the challenges. There aren't many people working on it, so any help would be appreciated.
Ice_cream_suit 9y ago
I ran OS X under vmware for some time. It worked well on my box. However, I failed to find any Mac applications that were sufficiently compelling. So I ended up deleting the OS X disk image.

13 points by xstartup 9y ago

Why or why not? Is it simply impossible to build?

steanne 9y ago

darling? https://www.darlinghq.org/ https://www.darlinghq.org/

petecox 9y ago

You could try porting your code to GNUstep. http://gnustep.org/ http://gnustep.org/

miles 9y ago

There's the old PearPC project: https://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/pearpc https://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/pearpc "PearPC emulates a PPC Macintosh inside of Windows and Linux. It emulates a machine capable of running OS X versions up 10.1 to 10.4 (Tiger). PearPC does not emulate a Machine capable of running OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or greater. The emulated machine can also run Darwin and Linux." See also https://github.com/sebastianbiallas/pearpc https://github.com/sebastianbiallas/pearpc and http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2005/01/18/PearPC.html http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2005/01/18/Pea... .

orionblastar 9y ago

If there was, Apple might sue them for it. So far there are GNUStep and Darling but they are not ready for prime time. You can buy an old MacBook for $99 That can run an old MacOSX on it like 10.7 or under but it would only be a Core 2 Duo, but would use Boot camp to run Linux.

sgillen 9y ago

I’m sure it’s technically feasible, but it’s very labor intensive, there is very little demand (as far as I can tell), and there is a very high risk of a lawsuit.

guitarbill 9y ago

Last time I checked, it was possible to boot macOS in VirtualBox. What macOS-exclusive apps would be worth running in your opinion? The only one that I use is Photos, and maybe Pixelmator. So it'd probably be quicker just to write completely new software, which is what seems to happen. Also, Apple has a nasty habit of breaking things between macOS versions and messing with APIs. Maintaining a compat layer would be horrible.

moron4hire 9y ago
The only piece of Apple software I can't live without is XCode, to make iOS builds of my Unity3D apps.
- guitarbill 9y ago
  Right. VirtualBox + overnight compiles might work (perf is going to suck). There exist cloud macOS offerings which work well, I've used them for iOS continuous integration. Depending on how much money those apps are making, could also be an option?
  - applecrazy 9y ago
    Travis CI is free for OSS projects and offers a pretty cool iOS build option: https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/languages/objective-c/ https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/languages/objective-c/

tinus_hn 9y ago

Wine is an absolutely amazing piece of software that’s easy to take for granted. There is a large library of software exclusive to Windows so there are enough people motivated to build it. There isn’t a whole lot of software exclusive to Mac OS X so it’s much more difficult to get enough people together to run such a project.

stuaxo 9y ago

Yes - The Darling project is exactly this: http://www.darlinghq.org/ http://www.darlinghq.org/ https://github.com/darlinghq/ https://github.com/darlinghq/ There's a lot of info on the website about the challenges. There aren't many people working on it, so any help would be appreciated.

Ice_cream_suit 9y ago

I ran OS X under vmware for some time. It worked well on my box. However, I failed to find any Mac applications that were sufficiently compelling. So I ended up deleting the OS X disk image.