Mac OSX software in Linux?

[attilathepun]

My apologies if this is in the wrong forum; it's not exactly a linux application question...
Anyway, what would be involved in running Mac OSX software on Linux? I know there are ppc emulators such as the pearpc project, but do we need ppc emulation? Now that there are Intel macs, and the osx86 project has had some limited success running OSX on pc's, I don't think the issue lies in hardware issues.

I know the Darwin core of OS X is founded in BSD's Mach3 kernel. How difficult would it be to run its software on BSD or even Linux? I'm not sure why we'd want Internet Explorer for Macintosh running on Linux (granted, it would be amusing), but Photoshop would be nice, and I'd be interested to see how Final Cut Pro performs under Linux.

Thanks!

[techieMoe]

I know the Darwin core of OS X is founded in BSD's Mach3 kernel. How difficult would it be to run its software on BSD or even Linux? I'm not sure why we'd want Internet Explorer for Macintosh running on Linux (granted, it would be amusing), but Photoshop would be nice, and I'd be interested to see how Final Cut Pro performs under Linux.

There is no Intel-native (or Universal Binary) version of any of Adobe's products yet, so you're still going to need some sort of emulation. OS X itself can only run Photoshop through Rosetta. As for Final Cut Pro (which is Universal IIRC), I don't know. Sounds like an interesting project, though probably much too labor-intensive for anything more than sheer curiosity. You'd likely have much better luck getting the MS Windows version of Photoshop working using a hacked version of WINE.

[bigtomrodney]

I was just pondering this one the other day. I'm sure it would be easier to run a compatibility layer for OSX than Windows. I would guess that system calls would be more similar, and there would be no need for fake C: drives, registry etc. Since the most complained about applications are are Photoshop, iTunes and graphic design tools that sit at home on OSX it might be a nice answer.

[attilathepun]

I'll have to look more closely into Rosetta and see how it works, but my thoughts are it wouldn't take much more than a layer of library emulators to get things working. Granted, that won't be at all simple or quick to program, but it'd almost have to be easier than it's been for the Wine developers.