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VM Enables 'Write-Once, Run Anywhere' Linux Apps
An anonymous reader writes "A startup will soon launch 'a kind of holy software grail,' according to an article at LinuxDevices. The dual-licensed technology is claimed to enable more or less normal Linux applications to run — without requiring recompilation — under Windows, Mac, or Linux, with a look and feel native to each. 'As with Java, Lina users will first install a VM specific to their platform, after which they can run binaries compiled not for their particular OS, but for the VM, which aims to hide OS-specific characteristics from the application. Lina comprises a platform-specific application that virtualizes the host PC's x86 processor... A lightly modified Linux kernel (2.6.19, for now) runs on top of the VM. Under the Linux kernel is a filesystem with standard Linux libraries modified to map resources such as library, filesystem, and system calls to analogous resources on the host platform.' Further details, including an entertaining video or two are at OpenLina.com"
This is to port linux apps to other platforms. It sure applies to 3D linux apps as well. Of course, it won't be useful to port Windows 3D FPS games to Linux, but that is not a topic here.
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
->...you have to compile specifically for it, so it doesn't run legacy linux applications.l
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6279947776.htm
"In Lina's case, the VM is essentially a Linux environment that supports standard C/C++ applications, or even perl and python, if their respective interpreters are installed. CTO Nile Geisinger explained, "You have to compile binaries specifically for Lina, but it's fairly trivial, no different than compiling binaries for SuSE or Red Hat."
-> how is this better than cygwin/mingw???
Even worse:
"Open source developers will be able to use Lina for free, while commercial developers will pay an as-yet undecided licensing fee, the idea goes."
->so, better recompile for free for the three systems.
->wine is the other way round, but at least it doesn't need you to recompile or require you to pay to use it.
->no comments:
"Geisinger hinted that Lina's library set is fairly extensive, after four years of development by a team that has ranged from two to five developers. "There's a lot of code there," he said.
However, a few biggies are missing. GTK+ support is in the works, but not finished yet. There's no support initially for USB peripherals and possibly for other hardware interfaces. And, there's no slick installer to put non-Linux users at ease."
->compare with the resources put e.g. behind java or even cygwin
Well, recompiling an application doesn't port it to a different OS.
The work needed to abstract the fact that you are running on Windows or MacOS instead of Linux is highly repetitive, and therefore a good target for factoring out into some common -- thing.
The most accepted way for this is to develop a framework with WxWidgets. But what if you don't like the framework? What if you need a different framework? What if your language is not supported by the framework? Integrating a VM to the underlying OS is an alternative.
Another thing that I think is useful in this approach is potentially dealing with coupling of unrelated applications via common library dependencies. If one application requires a later version of a library than another is compatible with, you can't run them both easily on the same machine. Anybody who used non-Ubuntu repositories on Ubuntu has run into this.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
So it looks like right now it mostly supports Qt with some gtk stuff coming along. Anyone else find that odd? Today you can compile your Qt apps on Linux, Mac and Windows and get native look and feel. Why would I want to wrap that with a vmmachine? Just yesterday I ran across an app written in Qt for HDR imaging that is written with Qt and is for the mac, linux and windows.
Do you changes clothes while making the "chee-chee-cha-cha-choh" transformation sound?
Trick maybe the wrong word - changing the L&F is by design with code such as:
n dFeelClassName());
g .html
try
{
UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookA
}
catch (UnsupportedLookAndFeelException ex) {}
While not perfect, it is pretty good. There are screen shots and some of the deficiencies laid out here: http://today.java.net/pub/a/today/2003/12/08/swin
-- Mike
This is an issue if you want to distribute LINA with your application, or at least a possible issue. Note the Classpath exception to the GPL which considers dynamic linking to produce a derivative work.
If this turns out to be a serious issue, we can write a wrapper around standard Qt with a compatible ABI/API so you can just use autotools, develop for multiple Linux distros, and then just test against LINA. Compile it on any Linux you want and deploy on LINA.
Yes. The commercial version isn't under the GPL.
This is how Trolltech does it.
I'll say it very simply.
Do not force end-users to the command line.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
SQLite is about the most blisteringly fast razor thin piece of non-bloated code you can imagine. If they used it for things like browse history and storing cached data it'd be an improvement over lots of text parsing and unintelligently storing cached data in memory.
I hate printers.
duh, just install Linux on a KVM/Xen/Vmware virtual machine on Windows. No need for LINA, and (wow) it's completely compatible with Linux!
Given, I'm running a PPC machine, but from my experience with open source on Linux and Mac OS X... because something always, ALWAYS, goes wrong the first time you do "configure" or "make?" Always.
Either it's missing some libraries (my experience with GD), or it requires SUDO permissions but the instructions didn't say it required SUDO permissions, or the path its writing to is wrong, or it has a Good Ol American compilation error... something always goes wrong.
If you want to write a GUI to cope with every single possible error in the 'configure' and 'make' process, more power to you. But I doubt it's possible for any computer program to handle every case in an automatic fashion.
Comment of the year
That is the norm for Mac OS X applications.
Actually, most Windows apps take advantage of autoplay, which means it really is "put the CD in, push the big flashing button that pops up, click next a whole lot because none of that text could be important, wait".
To my knowledge, Linux doesn't have autoplay. While I agree that autoplay is awful, it does make things easier for endusers.
I don't know if OSX has autoplay or not, but in any case with OSX it tends to be "put disc in, double-click the disc icon that just showed up". I haven't seen any equivalent for Linux - you usually have to find the install program or similar. God help you if you have a package manager - then you have to search for what you want to install!
People's brains freeze up when confronted with a computer. They'd much rather just put a shiny disc in and let the magic computer do its work. Seriously, you could sell "Linux application install discs" which are just a pack of CDs where each one has "aptitude install gimp", maybe a hudnred bytes each, and people would buy them.
Breaking Into the Industry - A development log about starting a game studio.
I gotta admit, the other day I burned a later build of Matrox X-Tools onto a CD. Had an autorun in it, etc.
Stuck the CD in the drive, the autoran ran their installer.
Held the mouse of the Install Matrox X-Tools - got "Matrox X-Tools can not be found"...
Apparently their stupid ass installer is so hardcoded the CD has to be named something specific - but even burning another CD with the right volume name didn't help. Even moving the installer into the directory WITH the Matrox X-Tools, it couldn't find its own directory.
In other words, if you don't have one of their CD's, you can't install it.
So why do they let you download it?
Utterly stupid shit.
And don't get me started on how we have installed and uninstalled Adobe Premiere 1.5 and the Matrox X-Tools a dozen times now and STILL can't this utter crap to work properly. After a fresh install of Windows and the downloading of the necessary critical security updates, Adobe Premiere will not load. If you manage to achieve that (we did on one machine), Matrox will tell you Adobe Premiere is not installed - even when it is. If you manage to get Matrox installed, Adobe hangs loading the Matrox drivers. If you manage to get past that, so that both Adobe and Matrox runs, Matrox can't find its own goddamn card...
I mean, if it wasn't for the alleged "features" this crap has, both companies would have been out of business years ago. They're both ridiculously poor software companies.
The software industry is TRULY a pathetically badly run industry. You can't even call it an "industry" - it's a joke shop.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!