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Native Windows PE File Loading on OS X?

Posted by Zonk on from the to-what-purpose-and-determination dept.

ozmanjusri writes "Coders working on Wine for Mac have found that the Mac loader has gained its own undocumented ability to load and understand Windows Portable Executable (PE) files. They found PE loading capabilities in Leopard that weren't there in Tiger. Further dissection showed that Apple is masking references to 'Win' and 'PE' in the dll, which means it's not an accidental inclusion. Is Apple planning native PE execution within OS X?"

5 of 397 comments (clear)

  1. noooo FP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    please not - i don't need every windows malware able to run on my mac...

  2. Loading PE is not a big deal by apankrat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The actual problem is resolving all external dependencies of Windows-bound binaries. If the Win32 API is somehow emulated (see Wine project for some "minor" details), this leaves (an ungodly mess of) COM interfaces. Then even if this is taken care of, Apple is going to be quite exposed to a legal beating from MS.

    Lastly, "Is Apple planning native PE execution within OSX?" - if they were _planning_ that, they wouldn't include this into a production release of the OS. This means that it's already used for something. The big question is what exactly.

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    3.243F6A8885A308D313
  3. Re:Win32 on OS X -- goodness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That is not true. Anyone remember when IBM did this with OS/2? It killed the market for OS/2 software, because every developer just wrote for the lowest common denominator (Windows) instead of making "native" OS/2 software. Adding Windows application support in Mac OS X would kill the platform slowly.

  4. Re:Not for Win32 compatibility by jcr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Mind telling me what the difference is between a selling point and removing a barrier to sale, exactly?

    A selling point is a reason why a product is superior to another product. A barrier to sale is a reason why a customer might be bound to stay with a different product.

    You don't buy a Mac because it can run a windows app, since the cheap shit from Dell will do that, too. You buy the Mac for the things that it offers over and above what the Dell box can do.

    -jcr

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    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  5. Re:Not for Win32 compatibility by The+One+and+Only · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple isn't a hardware company or a software company. They're a systems company. They sell a complete system that they put together. The hardware might have an Intel CPU, an nVidia graphics card or a Marvell WiFi controller, and the software might have a Mach kernel, a KDE-derived web browser, or a GNU compiler, but you don't have to invent your own kitchen sink or air conditioner to build a great house, either.

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    In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199