porting with MacOS X and FreeBSD and Solaris

[igracgq]

Would it be possible to install MacOS X programs or FreeBSD programs or Solaris programs on the Linux sine they are all Unix based operating systems? If all these operating systmes are written under same set of standards, my presumption is that the programs written for these operating systems should run on all of them. So is there an appliaction out there that will port the programs to all the unix like operating systems?

thanks

[sarumont]

If you have the source code, it is highly probable that things will compile on Linux that were written for FBSD and Solaris (x86). Things written for OSX won't compile on Linux without some porting/hacking (99% anyway) as they are written for the PPC architecture and bastardized (not vanilla) FreeBSD. Though BSD may be somewhere down in the depths of OSX, it *is* made by Apple. This means that there is a 100% chance that things that they write for OSX will not compile/run cleanly on a real FreeBSD installation.

[igracgq]

well i guess OSX programs won't run on BSD because they are not open source ( I guess we can only emulate them, like we do it with windows programs through Wine) but other programs regardless what Unix type OS they are written for, can be compiled on any platform as long as its a source tarball and not a package.

I'm surprised that Linux, BSD, Solaris don't have an easy way of installing tarballs but rather you have to go thorugh unefficient way of installing, compiling,untar the tarball. In know that BSD has porting option that automates this process but I'm not too familiar if that is true. Other way of installing programs could be to install the packages but they don't work on all OS's and are even ditro dependant for Linux where package written for Red Hat won't work on mankrake for example.

[sether]

I'm surprised that Linux, BSD, Solaris don't have an easy way of installing tarballs but rather you have to go thorugh unefficient way of installing, compiling,untar the tarball. In know that BSD has porting option that automates this process but I'm not too familiar if that is true. Other way of installing programs could be to install the packages but they don't work on all OS's and are even ditro dependant for Linux where package written for Red Hat won't work on mankrake for example.

on FreeBSD:
cd /usr/ports/category_of_program/program_i_want_to_install/
make install clean

couldn't be simpler than that. or if you want to do it via packages:
pkg_add -r package_name

both are very effecient and reliable (they usually do not break).

[sether]

oh, and i've tried to install a few programs from source on FreeBSD that were written for Linux. never worked though. i'm not saying it's impossible, but i've never had it work.

[sarumont]

oh, and i've tried to install a few programs from source on FreeBSD that were written for Linux. never worked though. i'm not saying it's impossible, but i've never had it work.

You have to have Linux Compatibilty built into the kernel, as both kernels handle kernel-level stuff differently. I've never tried it, but I know that's the first step to getting it to work.

I guess we can only emulate them, like we do it with windows programs through Wine

Wine is not an emulator..............

[sether]

You have to have Linux Compatibilty built into the kernel, as both kernels handle kernel-level stuff differently. I've never tried it, but I know that's the first step to getting it to work.

i have the linux compatability layer installed and i am able to run linux programs that i built from the ports tree such as linux-flashplugin and linux-sun-jdk. maybe there's something i'm doing wrong but i am unable to run anything written specifically for Linux that is not in the FreeBSD ports tree.

[sarumont]

You have to have Linux Compatibilty built into the kernel, as both kernels handle kernel-level stuff differently. I've never tried it, but I know that's the first step to getting it to work.

i have the linux compatability layer installed and i am able to run linux programs that i built from the ports tree such as linux-flashplugin and linux-sun-jdk. maybe there's something i'm doing wrong but i am unable to run anything written specifically for Linux that is not in the FreeBSD ports tree.

Weird...I'll let you know what I come up with when I put FreeBSD on my desktop. That will probably happen when I get my new HDD in and set up RAID.

Edit: Looks like my HDD will be here today...w00t! RAID0!

[dylunio]

Wine is not an emulator..............

I know Wine Is Not an Emulator (WINE), but what is it then?

dylunio

[sether]

Wine is not an emulator..............

I know Wine Is Not an Emulator (WINE), but what is it then?

dylunio

it is an "Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X and Unix."

edit: read this as well: http://winehq.com/site/myths#slow