Mac applications on FreeBSD

[Matthew Seaman]

On 03/02/2010 15:38, Bill White wrote:
> Will Mac OS X applications run on FreeBSD?  Specifically, Microsoft
> Office:Mac?  If so, does it require special manipulation like hacking
> the system kernel and/or application in order to get it to run?  Thanks
> very much, Bill

No.  FreeBSD can run many Linux applications under emulation (and
possibly some Sco applications, but that code branch has rotted due to
disuse).  It can't run Mac OS X applications though.

Despite certain similarities between FreeBSD and the unix underpinnings
of Mac OS X (darwin) i's not possible to run even a command-line program
from Mac OS X on a FreeBSD box.  Not that that's a particularly
interesting thing to do.  Obviously what you want to run are all those
nice graphical apps written in cocoa and whaterver else is flavour of
the month at Apple.  There is simply *no* chance of that: the graphical
environment is Apples' proprietary code, and they aren't going to be
releasing it any time soon.  Without the graphical layers, trying to
get a Mac application running is an exercise in futility.

Why don't you explain what exactly you're trying to achieve: free
alternatives to most Mac applications are generally available.  They
won't be anything like as slick, and functionality will only be
approximately the same, but they might do.

	Cheers,

	Matthew (who is getting fed up with Thunderbird3 continually
                 marking whole mailboexs as unread on his *shiny* new
                 Mac...)

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.              7 Priory Courtyard, Flat 3
Black Earth Consulting                       Ramsgate
                                             Kent, CT11 9PW
Free and Open Source Solutions               Tel: +44 (0)1843 580647

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