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Linux Compatibility Available for NetBSD PowerPC Ports

Posted by michael on from the but-will-it-run-Word? dept.

Emmanuel Dreyfus writes "The Linux compatibility feature has been enabled on NetBSD PowerPC ports (macppc, prep, bebox, ofppc, and amigappc). This means it is now possible to run Linux binaries such as Netscape Communicator on these ports. More information is available at the NetBSD web site."

4 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Re:on the subject of linuxppc... by imac.usr · · Score: 3

    Try either Yellow Dog or SuSE's PowerPC distribution. Both should support the same platforms that LinuxPPC supports.

    There's also a PowerPC version of Debian if you want to use apt-get (which, although I have never used it myself, is supposedly comparable to BSD's ports).

    Or, wait two weeks and swallow the blue pill....


    --

    --
    I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
  2. This is BAD for BSD. by Nonesuch · · Score: 3
    Making it easier to run Linux binaries on BSD systems makes it that much less likely for software vendors to produce native BSD binaries.

    I'd rather see the effort spent on 'Binary compatibility to run Linux apps' be used to encourage vendors to produce native BSD binaries.

    Some might claim that this shows the technical superiority of BSD, but in my opinion Linux emulation is harmful to the future of BSD operating systems.

    --

    I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
  3. Portable to OSX? by zaius · · Score: 3
    So, since OSX is BSD-based, does this mean we can now get linux compatability on our OSX mac's?

    Then I could run netscape in 4 OS's at the same time (OSX, Mac OS9, Linux, and Winders, using VirtualPC or something like that)...

    That would make quite a screenshot... =)

  4. Re:The real question... by kkenn · · Score: 4

    As bad as Netscape is, it's maintained a lot better for Linux than it is for other UNIX platforms (at least on i386).

    You also seem to misunderstand the idea of Linux binary compatability -- it's not "emulation", the binaries run *natively*. The BSD kernel reconfigures itself to appear like a Linux kernel to the Linux binaries, and everything runs just as if it was on a Linux machine, on the bare hardware. Therefore Linux binaries run at full-speed, just like native BSD binaries. It's very cool - in fact, I'm typing this as we speak in a Linux mozilla daily build on my FreeBSD box.

    There's a good entry in the FreeBSD handbook about this if you're interested in more details.