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Google's Fuchsia OS will support Linux apps
Google's non-Linux-based Fuchsia OS has added an emulator for running Debian Linux apps. Like its upcoming Linux emulator for Chrome OS, Fuchsia's "Guest" app will offer tighter integration than typical emulators.
Google has added a Guest app to its emergent and currently open source Fuchsia OS to enable Linux apps to run within Fuchsia as a virtual machine (VM). The Guest app makes use of a library called Machina that permits closer integration with the OS than is available with typical emulators, according to a recent 9to5Google story.
Last month, Google announced a Project Crostini technology that will soon let Chromebook users more easily run mainstream Linux applications within a Chrome OS VM. This week, Acer's Chromebook Flip C101 joined the short list of Chromebooks that will offer Linux support later this year.
Previously: Google's New Non-Linux OS: Fuchsia
Google's Not-So-Secret New OS
Google Fuchsia UI Previewed
Google to Add Swift Language Support to Fuchsia OS
ChromeOS Gains the Ability to Run Linux Applications
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @06:40AM (5 children)
Is Fuchsia offering Windows emulation? No. After all, Windows is currently in the process of trying to offer Linux emulation.
Nevertheless, I'm both irritated by Fuchsia and happy for it. I'm irritated because it seems to be just another bunch of Google 20%-time crap that exists without any stated purpose; however, I hope Google starts giving Linux a run for its mindshare, because the whole Linux dev environment has calcified in its old age.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday June 22 2018, @03:11PM (4 children)
It would be amusing if Linux applications became the universal application type, with all OSes working to be capable of running these apps.
Windows Subsystem for Linux probably would have to work the hardest.
Linux the easiest.
Fuchsia probably not too hard?
How difficult would it be for OS X to become capable of running Linux apps?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @05:11PM (2 children)
Darwin, the core of OS X, is a BSD derivative.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Saturday June 23 2018, @03:21AM (1 child)
Let me rephrase. If the Windows kernel can be made to run Linux apps (aka Windows Subsystem for Linux from Microsoft), then how difficult would it be for a BSD kernel to be made able to run Linux apps?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @04:12PM
And before that iBCS, SunOS, Xenix, and a bunch of other binary emulation.
The problem being that since it isn't a formal specification, implementation differences in the OS itself sometimes has unexpected effects on the emulators capabilities, as well as differences in permission models between oses. In FreeBSD's case, I believe they had some issues supporting 64 bit linux for a while. But I was running the Neverwinter Nights dedicated server on FreeBSD 4.x back in the early 2000s, so it is more than possible: it is functional. The greatest limitation has been driver support so desktop applications can be run or run with full functionality.
(Score: 3, Informative) by HiThere on Friday June 22 2018, @11:36PM
I don't know about current versions of OSX, but back at OS10.4 pretty much all Linux applications could run as native-with-a-translation-library. They had a ports system that could be used. (And there were also other approaches that also worked.)
Of course, that doesn't directly speak to current OSX use, but it sure means that it wouldn't be difficult to add.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.