Slashdot Mirror
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"
Now someone can buy an Apple Mac, with an Intel Processor, and a Microsoft Windows OS, and run all their favorite Linux programs, without feeling all that peer pressure to choose a side.
Actually that might be an improvement. It would at least resolve the crippling memory leaks. Especially now that FF 3 will have a bloated database.
Hopefully now she won't spend the $$$ on the Mac.
She has a good OS setup now. All she needs is some white glue and glitter, and nobody will be able to tell the difference.
You made your girlfriend dependent on you to install a FLASH player??
Ask why there is no graphical install for the flash player. The answer probably has something to do with having no modern, standard GUI available in "Linux" to implement such a thing. Not only that, but there is no standard way to handle executable binaries and scripts from the GUI, so vendors like Adobe would have no idea how to provide concise yet accurate directions that would work across different desktops and distros. This is even more true for package files: double-or-maybe-single click on them and what will happen is... who knows?
Want to distribute your application on CD? Well, forget it... CDs and DVDs get mounted in umpteen different places these days depending on the distro; most of those places are considered LSB-compliant, but a normal user or even techie would be very confused trying to access the path to a CD from the shell.
To a typical user, using "Linux" is like trying to carry around luggage with handles that change size/position every time you grab for one.
Java always with the exceptions and never simply checking return values. That is one of the reason why users write poorly performing code.
----
Go canucks, habs, and sens!