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"

Comments

Re:Humor

[WrongSizeGlass]

Q: What does LINA stand for?
A: LINA is not an acronym. LINA:
L = Lina
I = Is
N = No
A = Acronym

Re:Oh How I Wish It Were That Easy

[Zero__Kelvin]

"See, the issue here isn't that she can't be instructed like a monkey to hit a button. The problem here is that if something goes wrong, she's out of luck."

Yes. At least when things go wrong with Windows, as they are wont to do, you can just simply and easily re-install Windows ;-)

Seriously, there are so many things wrong with this discussion it blows my mind, but the biggest error has to be allowing the myth that there is a need to build from source to be perpetuated. Use a decent distribution, which is most of them these days, and it is all done with "point and click" unless you are doing something very advanced that the typical user doesn't need to do, or you just prefer the power and freedom of the command line.

You havn't met my Mom have you?

[sbaker]

> "Dear user: Insert the CD. Type make all; make install. Press return and go for coffee."

Hmmm - You havn't met my Mom have you?

Insert the CD...OK - that's reasonable - she knows where the eject button is - she knows to take out any CD that's already in there - she knows how to close the CD door.

Type something. Well, you didn't say anything about logging in, opening a shell window, being in the correct directory, or that the period in 'make install.' was not supposed to be typed in - and those are only the things that I can imagine that my mom wouldn't be able to do. The number of things that she could misunderstand or misinterpret are far beyond what I can imagine.