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trademark91 · 03/02/2011 12:58 PM

ive been thinking a lot lately about linux, windows, OSX, and the like.

the main problem that i have with linux is the fact that i can't get the good proprietary apps that i love in a linux environment. i am left without itunes, photoshop, fireworks, etc, left to load them in wine, which works enough, but eats a bit of processor, and sometimes doesn't support what i need.

i realize that OSX is bsd based, which means it works much like linux, and has UNIX at its heart. would this mean that with a bit of work, i could get linux programs compiling and running on a mac? and with further work, also desktop environments like kde and fluxbox? and in the end, could i get the things i love in linux to run on a mac natively throught its UNIX base, while using the OSX ability to run CS5 and such natively? i think if i could, the perfect system would be pretty simple to develop.

any one have any thoughts?

again, this is just a brainstorm, but do you think its possible?

ZiNgA BuRgA · 03/02/2011 03:50 PM

You can compile a number of Linux apps on OSX. I don't know about the desktop environment though, but maybe.
You may wish to check how well apps like Photoshop run "natively" on OSX - it may be a bit of a different experience.

Also, unless you own a Mac, running OSX can be tricky due to limited hardware support.

Assassinator · 03/02/2011 04:12 PM

(03/02/2011 12:58 PM)trademark91 Wrote: i realize that OSX is bsd based, which means it works much like linux, and has UNIX at its heart. would this mean that with a bit of work, i could get linux programs compiling and running on a mac?

I don't think it's as simple as that, no, you won't just be able to compile Linux stuff to run on a Mac, not for all things and not without changing the code at least.

I know a few programs which works for Linux but takes significant amount of effort and recoding to get it to run on Mac.

But all in all, I don't know much about Linux, and next to nothing about Mac, so I'm not the best person for this.

ZiNgA BuRgA · 03/02/2011 04:33 PM

^ Actually, I'd say most command line apps should work fine due to OSX having a POSIX environment.
OSX is just a bit more restricted and less flexible than Linux/BSD though (probably inability to change kernels or do kernel modifications), so if those aren't really an issue, you should be able to get most Linux stuff on there.

xero1 · 04/02/2011 07:09 AM

Look into Mac Ports, most linux donkey do run on OS X with some work. I had KDE installed on my Mac a few years ago. It will not replace OS X, but run on top of it. It's more of a Finder replacement. GTK also works in OS X and a lot of Linux have been ported to OS X. Mac Ports in source based so it will compile everything from source, kinda like Gentoo does. It's a bitch, it takes hours to install something like KDE, and it will never be like a Linux deskop.

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