Darling is a translation layer that lets you run macOS software on Linux, not an emulator, it’s like wine but for MacOS apps.

  • shrugal@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    Oh come on, we could have lived in a world where the translation layers are called WINE and DINE!

  • ᗪᗩᗰᑎ@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    for those not familiar, this basically lets you run command line tools. anything with a GUI will not work.

      • ᗪᗩᗰᑎ@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        I’ve been hoping this project makes significant progress for the last few years to run GUI apps. unfortunately it’s been slow as there’s not as much interest in getting Mac apps to run on Linux as there is with WINE. that said, I don’t fault them, it’s a daunting task and wine has the benefit of three decades of progress under their belt.

    • Limeey@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Everything starts somewhere, but I wonder what macOS cli’s are the target for this tool that doesn’t have a Linux equivalent

      • ᗪᗩᗰᑎ@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        CLI’s are likely not specifically the target. I suspect the CLI is just the “low hanging fruit” and core set of software that needs to be supported before you build up to a fully functional GUI apps.

    • MacN'Cheezus@lemmy.today
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      11 months ago

      Seeing how the majority of CLI apps available on the Mac are ported over from Linux in the first place, what is even the point?

  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    For software that’s currently available on both Windows and MacOS, how does the performance of the Windows version under Wine compare to the MacOS version under Darling?

    • bamboo@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Wine is much, much better at this point. In particular, Darling doesn’t have much support for GUIs yet, so unless it is a command line tool you probably want to stick with Wine.

    • Pantherina@feddit.de
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      11 months ago

      I imagine if Darling gets as well supported it would be better. But it will not be optimized as much, even though the core architecture may be way more similar

  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Anyone have experience with it? I’m trying to think of something that is MacOS only that I care about to test it with, but coming up empty.

    • GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org
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      11 months ago

      Haven’t tried it yet, but I can see myself using it in the future. It could be great for automating Mac/iOS development and administrative workflows. I don’t think you can compile, sign, notarize, or inspect Mac/iOS apps without Xcode tools (which are, of course, Mac-only). It’s a pain in the ass to operate Mac VMs for such purposes, and it’s only getting more difficult as time goes on. IIRC Apple only allows 2 guest VMs per host now.

      Not sure if there are any non-Mac tools to work with dmg files (Mac disk images).

      If GUI support is sufficiently developed in the future, there are plenty of Mac apps I would like to run. iPhone app support on Linux would be an absolute game-changer.

    • Pantherina@feddit.de
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      11 months ago

      I mean they have lots of MS Apps, Adobe stuff, some video editors and all that, maybe MS apps on macOS are less hard to run

    • J4g2F@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      If in the future it ever gets good support for gui’s and is stable. For sure gone try Qlab.

      It’s simple the best show control software I tried yet. But for now I will be using Linux show player or borrow a MacBook.

    • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Safari is by far the best browser for battery performance. I’m uncertain if this would translate over to safari running in darling when it supports guis fully.

  • rwhitisissle@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    I don’t really understand the appeal of this. What command line software is there on MacOS that there isn’t an adequate equivalent to on Linux?

    • Pantherina@feddit.de
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      11 months ago

      Its a first step. And then some day complex software can run, even though I have the feeling that has all shady DRM stuff inside

    • lelgenio@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      For me the appeal is potentially being able to verify that my code at least compiles and has basic functionality on Darwin. No idea if this can be useful for anyone other than developers.

  • JokeDeity@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    I’m a Windows user so this is even less relevant to me, but I can’t think of a single program or application I would even want that’s only on Mac.

    • KseniyaK@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      Uhm, if that happens, maybe the devs could use something like qemu or a specialized fork of it?

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

    Cool. Do you know if this project will support PowerPC-era Mac OS X apps or if that makes any difference? There are a bunch of quirky and fun games that could avoid being lost to time if an “emulator” can run them.