Submitted by “Between WINE, VMware, BOCHs and ilk – not to mention the renewed focus on virtualisation we’re now seeing – we’re somewhat spoilt for choice when it comes to running Windows applications on Linux. But what about the other way around? Cygwin aside, there is another way.”
We’re already spoilt for choice the other way around too. VMware, Bochs and Qemu already run on Windows, and there is a Wine-like product called Line. How does this approach compare to all of these other choices?
From the linked article:
“Building off a concept similar to Java, LINA aims to provide open-source developers the ability to compile applications that will run on all of Windows, MacOS X, and various Unix systems.”
So, I believe is not like Wine or like VMWare, its more like a runtime environment for multiple platforms.
Is there another website than http://line.sourceforge.net/ for line? This one seems broken.
http://www.openlina.com/
Remember, Google is our friend! 🙂
Looks promising! I always found Cygwin the most confusing piece of software to install!!!
pac
It won’t be long before the choice of OS is irrelevant, if all your favorite applications can be run under more than one OS.
The OS will always be important in order to speak to hardware. Applications (web 2.0 in paticular) are a fair few layers above this
I was referring to the *choice* of OS
What is this “ilk” they mention at the start of the article?
Between WINE, VMware, BOCHs and ilk (…)
I tried to search the web for “ilk windows linux” but Google yields only Turkish pages. Can anyone give me a hint? Thanks.
From Dictionary.com
1.family, class, or kind: “he and all his ilk.”
It’s a fancy way of saying “having similar qualities”. So the quote could be written as:
Between WINE, VMware, BOCHs and similar systems
I hope this helps.
Damn, that was twisted!
I assume the use of “ilk” irked you and roused your ire.
i’m confused:
What exactly is in a LINA executable?
Our Linux executables are bundled in zip files that contain configuration files and native executables for each platform.
does this mean it’s just compiling each app once for every platform LINA supports, and inlcuding all of those binaries in one big package?
Thats what it sounds like. I doubt it will catch on with any developers, even more so since they said it cuts performance in half.
I just run xming on my windows box (a very small systray X11 app) and do x11 forwarding over ssh to run my apps…
What about coLinux?
“Cooperative Linux is the first working free and open source method for optimally running Linux on Microsoft Windows natively. More generally, Cooperative Linux (short-named coLinux) is a port of the Linux kernel that allows it to run cooperatively alongside another operating system on a single machine. For instance, it allows one to freely run Linux on Windows 2000/XP, without using a commercial PC virtualization software such as VMware, in a way which is much more optimal than using any general purpose PC virtualization software.”
http://www.colinux.org
http://colinux.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
I use coLinux with Xming and I can run any linux application directly in Windows.
coLinux requires a dual-core processor, however. And, since Lina seems to run on PowerPC as well as Intel, it may yet be a useful porting tool.
whats wrong with wxWidgets?
doesn’t this do essentially the same thing?
No. wxWidgets is a completely separate GUI toolkit that is independent of the operating system it’s running on. It’s great for cross-platform software but it doesn’t help with software that’s written for Gnome or KDE.
…so there is no help for people running OSX or Linux under PowerPC.
actualy, according to the openlina website:
Q: Can LINA run on 64 bit processors? What about PowerPC Macs?
A: LINA is capable of running on 64 bit processors, but this architecture will not be supported in our initial release. Our initial release for Mac OS X will support both the PPC and Intel versions.
I stand corrected!
I look with envy to the Mac users… *they* are spoiled when it comes to Windows emulation.
To bad Parallels doesn’t care for it’s paying Linux users and saves all the candy for their Mac Versions.
When we have seamless integration of emulated Windows apps and 3d acceleration, then we are spoiled, but who cares for us Linux users.