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I thought it was "macOS subsystem, for Linux" and got excited before realising it's the other way around. What do Mac users get out of this? I thought most Li

I thought it was "macOS subsystem, for Linux" and got excited before realising it's the other way around. What do Mac users get out of this? I thought most Linux things work reasonably well already

SllX 4y ago
FQA's got this covered: ======================== > Q: Why the same naming scheme as WSL? > A: It's a proof of concept name only. If I were to distribute this as a finished piece of software, which I probably won't (see why below) I would choose a different name. > Q: Isn't this literally just a QEMU virtual machine? How simple is that! > A: Yes, it is. And yes, it's simple. Why did I choose to put this on my Twitter, you ask? Because I couldn't find something exactly like what I did, and because before I posted it, I had 50 Twitter followers, total. I did not expect to get the over 700 likes that it did when I posted it; as a matter of fact, I would have been perfectly satisfied if it had gotten 7 likes. > Q: What, you won't be distributing this as a finished piece of software!? Why? > A: From what I can tell (and admittedly, I haven't tested this piece of software), it already exists. Lima seems to have a lot more features (such as file sharing, something that I have not implemented) and seems to be geared towards a different application (containers).
- classified 4y ago
  I love "FQA", as in "Frequently Questioned Answers" :)
anta40 4y ago
Running 32-bit apps, for example. I sometimes code in assembly for fun (my professional work is mobile app developer, though). One of my favorite assemblers is FASM: https://flatassembler.net/ https://flatassembler.net/ It's still written in 32-bit assembly, which means it won't run on any macOS since Catalina. On the other side, Linux still provide 32-bit compatibility mode.
jonas-w 4y ago
The other way around would be https://github.com/darlinghq/darling https://github.com/darlinghq/darling
rollcat 4y ago
In an ideal world, we wouldn't need to be bothered with Linux-only software. It's incredibly frustrating not only on Mac, but e.g. on OpenBSD as well. Docker (and Kubernetes) are a prime example, but it's increasingly bothersome to work around dependencies on systemd, logind, etc. Linux software is starting to feel like Windows software: it's this special other thing that requires extra steps and care to run on your machine, and the user experience is far from smooth, if things work at all. Also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31842318 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31842318
ar_lan 4y ago
For at least the last year I’ve ran my entire dev environment out of a Linux VM I ssh into (locally). The primary factors are: 1. I, overall, like macOS and the Apple ecosystem. I heavily use Notes, my calendar, several apps I like to sync from my iPad and phone, etc. I'm pretty bought-in, and macOS helps me manage the non-developer stuff a lot easier, in my opinion. 2. Enough things have broken, over time, from macOS updates that my developer experience is subpar compared to a Linux OS. 3. A Linux VM gives me 100% reproducibility, so little delay that I would argue to say there is no delay, and I can reliably use the rest of my MacBook for all the other apps I care about. It’s worked great, and I’ve never felt like it’s complicated. Edit: Some people might mention Docker. I've run into just-enough networking issues with Docker that the full VM was worth running.

I thought it was "macOS subsystem, for Linux" and got excited before realising it's the other way around. What do Mac users get out of this? I thought most Linux things work reasonably well already

SllX 4y ago

FQA's got this covered: ======================== > Q: Why the same naming scheme as WSL? > A: It's a proof of concept name only. If I were to distribute this as a finished piece of software, which I probably won't (see why below) I would choose a different name. > Q: Isn't this literally just a QEMU virtual machine? How simple is that! > A: Yes, it is. And yes, it's simple. Why did I choose to put this on my Twitter, you ask? Because I couldn't find something exactly like what I did, and because before I posted it, I had 50 Twitter followers, total. I did not expect to get the over 700 likes that it did when I posted it; as a matter of fact, I would have been perfectly satisfied if it had gotten 7 likes. > Q: What, you won't be distributing this as a finished piece of software!? Why? > A: From what I can tell (and admittedly, I haven't tested this piece of software), it already exists. Lima seems to have a lot more features (such as file sharing, something that I have not implemented) and seems to be geared towards a different application (containers).

classified 4y ago
I love "FQA", as in "Frequently Questioned Answers" :)

anta40 4y ago

Running 32-bit apps, for example. I sometimes code in assembly for fun (my professional work is mobile app developer, though). One of my favorite assemblers is FASM: https://flatassembler.net/ https://flatassembler.net/ It's still written in 32-bit assembly, which means it won't run on any macOS since Catalina. On the other side, Linux still provide 32-bit compatibility mode.

jonas-w 4y ago

The other way around would be https://github.com/darlinghq/darling https://github.com/darlinghq/darling

rollcat 4y ago

In an ideal world, we wouldn't need to be bothered with Linux-only software. It's incredibly frustrating not only on Mac, but e.g. on OpenBSD as well. Docker (and Kubernetes) are a prime example, but it's increasingly bothersome to work around dependencies on systemd, logind, etc. Linux software is starting to feel like Windows software: it's this special other thing that requires extra steps and care to run on your machine, and the user experience is far from smooth, if things work at all. Also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31842318 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31842318

ar_lan 4y ago

For at least the last year I’ve ran my entire dev environment out of a Linux VM I ssh into (locally). The primary factors are: 1. I, overall, like macOS and the Apple ecosystem. I heavily use Notes, my calendar, several apps I like to sync from my iPad and phone, etc. I'm pretty bought-in, and macOS helps me manage the non-developer stuff a lot easier, in my opinion. 2. Enough things have broken, over time, from macOS updates that my developer experience is subpar compared to a Linux OS. 3. A Linux VM gives me 100% reproducibility, so little delay that I would argue to say there is no delay, and I can reliably use the rest of my MacBook for all the other apps I care about. It’s worked great, and I’ve never felt like it’s complicated. Edit: Some people might mention Docker. I've run into just-enough networking issues with Docker that the full VM was worth running.