[clug] Linux/UNIX laptop?

Martin Pool mbp at sourcefrog.net
Tue Jan 4 23:32:20 GMT 2005


On  5 Jan 2005, Alex Satrapa <grail at goldweb.com.au> wrote:
> On 28 Dec 2004, at 00:33, blazs at netspeed.com.au wrote:
> 
> >Quoting Pearl <pearl.louis at anu.edu.au>:
> >
> >>do Macs run Linux programs?
> 
> Only Linux runs Linux programs.

Many Linux binaries will run unmodified on other Unixes that can
emulate Linux syscalls, including (iirc) hpux, aix, solaris, bsd and
sco (ha ha sco).  I don't think osx can do this, but of course you can
recompile things. 

You are more likely to run into problems with programs that use
Linux-specific interfaces.  I am told the sound interfaces are very
different, so many audio programs won't work.

OS X has X11, but it's not the native desktop API and so there is a
gap between Linux and OS X programs. 

-- 
Martin


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