Ask Slashdot: Could Linux Ever Become Fully Compatible With Windows and Mac Software?

dryriver writes: Linux has been around for a long time now. A lot of work has gone into it; it has evolved nicely and it dominates in the server space. Computer literate people with some tech skills also like to use it as their desktop OS. It's free and open source. It's not vendor-locked, full of crapware or tied to any walled garden. It's fast and efficient. But most "everyday computer users" or "casual computer buyers" still feel they have to choose either a Windows PC or an Apple device as the platform they will do their computing on. This binary choice exists largely because of very specific commercial list of programs and games available for these OSs that is not available for Linux.

Here is the question: Could Linux ever be made to become fully compatible with all Windows and Mac software? What I mean is a Linux distro that lets you successfully install/run/play just about anything significant that says "for Windows 10" or "for OSX" under Linux, without any sort of configuring or crazy emulation orgies being needed? Macs and PCs run on the exact same Intel/AMD/Nvidia hardware as Linux. Same mobos, same CPUs and GPUs, same RAM and storage devices. Could Linux ever be made to behave sufficiently like those two OSs so that a computer buyer could "go Linux" without any negative consequences like not being able to run essential Windows/Mac software at all? Or is Linux being able to behave like Windows and OSX simply not technically doable because Windows and OSX are just too damn complex to mimic successfully?

Comments

Yes and No

[dunkindave]

Could it? Yes. Will it? No. The other OSes will always be putting something in that makes it break, and playing catchup isn't viable. You also don't want always to be the tail getting wagged by the big dogs.

Re: Yes and No

[WarJolt]

The question is malformed. Will Windows and Mac ever be made compatible with Linux?

Windows 10 has implemented Linux system calls. You can run Linux apps on Windows.

Re: Yes and No

[Junta]

I suppose the goal is 'can linux desktop become the universal application platform' and the answer is theoretically yes, practically, no.

For OSX apps, there hasn't even been much of an interest in theory. GNUstep had an injection of liveliness for people wanting to make at least code compile for OSX and Linux, but that enthusiasm died out. It never ever began to think about binary compatibility.

For Windows apps, sure, wine has been doing it's job admirably, but it's chasing a moving target that has much more resources than it does.

Now the phenomenon you mention speaks to another possibility: kernel system call emulation and just use the Windows/OSX system as-is. This is of limited utility as there isn't a supported/licensed way to do this. It's one thing to borrow the userspace of a free operatiing system, but doesn't really work for closed-source applications.

Re: Yes and No

[bondsbw]

Also it depends on what you call "Windows software". You won't have great success with consumer software on the GUI stack, but server software is a different story nowadays. Command line is much better and Microsoft has taken big steps to making Windows Server headless. PowerShell and .NET Core now run on Linux. And ASP.NET Core is cross-platform for hosting web applications.

Re:Yes and No

[Ichijo]

No. The other OSes will always be putting something in that makes it break

I doubt that. Windows XP seems pretty stable now, and someday Windows 10 will be just as stable.

Re:Yes and No

[DickBreath]

A pirated Windows is not zero cost. Microsoft does everything possible to make it have lots of costs in terms of workarounds and inconvenience. Or it just flat out failing at an inopportune time.

Yes, Linux is zero cost. So it is definitely cheaper than the non-zero cost of pirated Windows. But Linux is also superior. The only reason for Windows is the legacy software.

A significant fraction of people who don't use computers in their job get by with chromebooks. A whole chromebook generation of school children is also growing up.

Re:Yes and No

[techno-vampire]

And it is unusable garbage (unless you're one of those weirdos who *LIKES* to do everything the hardest way possible).

Wrong, wrong, wrong, utterly wrong. About a decade or so ago, my sister, who knows how to use a computer but not how to do any troubleshooting asked me to convert her system from Windows to Ubuntu. Since then, she's asked me for computer help about once or maybe twice a year, mostly about system upgrades. Aside from that, It Just Works.

About three years ago, I did the same for a friend's wife because he doesn't know Linux. Again, It Just Works and she's never needed any assistance. If you can't get Linux to work, either you have hardware problems or you're doing something wrong, and I've no idea which it is in your case.

Re: Yes and No

[OrangeTide]

There is Linux syscall emulation on NT kernel and on L4 kernel already. And I used the Linux-compatibility in LynxOS back in the day for an RTOS project.

FreeBSD/NetBSD carried a lot over from the older iBCS (Intel Binary Compatibility Standard) to provide Linux compatibility. NetBSD is interesting in that it still supports really old 386BSD binaries.

Windows compatible is harder than Linux compatible. You can start from wine, Longene or ReactOS, but really unless you have the resources of Microsoft and their level of internal documentation it's not going to go well for you. But feel free to run your Linux binaries on Windows 10, it does work as advertised.

Re:Yes and No

[Bert64]

If you expect everything to work out of the box, get a mac...
I've had just as many problems getting windows to support random hardware as linux, often the wifi or ethernet is not supported and i have to download the drivers on another system, often old hardware is not supported at all on 64bit windows but does work on 64bit linux. Having to hunt for windows drivers is just as painful, if not more so than linux.

The advantage windows has is being either preinstalled, or provided with a custom made restore image thats already configured for the hardware it ships with. The same is true of macos, it's tailored specifically for the hardware it ships with.
Linux is pretty much the only os that is downloaded and installed separately.

If more general purpose linux systems were available preinstalled then it would be far easier for users. Noone has driver problems with preinstalled chromebooks, android phones or any of the thousands of embedded linux devices out there on the market.

Why?

[F.Ultra]

Why is this even a question? If you want to run your Windows 10 applications, why don't you simply use Windows? Why switch to Linux if you just want it to be another form of Windows?

Re:Why?

[Stormy Dragon]

Because it could be another form of Windows that's not recording everything I do, installing applications without permission, deleting files without permission, etc.

Re:Why?

[Patrick_Champion]

The current Eclipse is 4.7.2 or so.

I used a much older version with the nickname of "Helios" or something like that and 7 years ago I was able to set it up to debug a Fortran app that called C++ libraries that call Fortran libraries. I also debugged Java apps that called C++ libraries which, I think, called Fortran libraries. I was able to step from a call in one language to the library in another language, track, and even modify the variables at different levels and see the results in the other language levels.

VERY useful. Eclipse works with a gazillion languages and environments (Linux, Windows, Android, IOS, along with various CPU's like ARM, MIPS, Intel, you name it). BUT, if you have to debug something like SQL Server SSRS packages, that I doubt would work, but hey, maybe nowadays, someone has extended Eclipse to even work with SSRS/SSIS/SSAS packages.

Eclipse is the grand daddy. Most environments are more speciallized to things like just Java or just Android.

No

[IWantMoreSpamPlease]

Next dumb question?

Wrong Question

[ipb]

Could WIndows and Mac ever become fully compatible with Linux software?

WINE

[transformania]

If this is what you want, I encourage you to become one with the community behind WINE. And, chances are they have already put a lot of effort into making, the few Windows apps worth your time, work (cough..Photoshop...cough...games...)

Do Developers want to be compatible?

[Prien715]

Software can be cross-platform if that's one of the goals of the developer.

VLC is the best video player out there -- and it works for Linux/Windows/MacOS. So is Libre Office and Microsoft has even managed develop a cross-platform code editor -- and each one is in an entirely different programming language (C++/Java/Javascript respectively).

Will there be a day when developers mostly write cross-platform software? One can hope.

Re:What X server on Windows 10

[postbigbang]

One day a VM or container will contain enough guts to safely run the apps in less than a hypervisor mode. Until then, the answer for all three is: Not really. Better still, it shouldn't happen. One flaw in Windows affects Windows, but rarely MacOS or Linux/BSDs. One well-done flaw can kill/maim one host, but not all three.

We survive.

Applications still not ported after 7+ years

[tepples]

The "doesn't run ____" is fixed by spending a little time looking at Linux software till you find a replacement.

Since I posted this list of applications that are not ported to GNU/Linux several years ago, Netflix has become ported. But the majority have not been. So what replacement would you recommend for each of the following?

Adobe Photoshop, including adjustment layers, print color matching, and full compatibility with PSD files you receive from clients or team members
Adobe Animate (formerly Flash), including exporting vector animations to HTML5
TurboTax
Stone Edge Order Manager
Sonic Mania
Diablo III
StarCraft II
Street Fighter V
Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Re:Applications still not ported after 7+ years

[Anonymous Coward]

A girlfriend