Mac OS X/Darwin port of Wine

[Jim White]

Mike Hearn wrote:
> I'm suggesting you use it as a place to start the port. If you decide
> to make things hard for yourself due to some bizarre hatred of desktop
> Linux, then you're just increasing the amount of work you'd need to do.
> 
> You don't even have to dual boot or anything, just stick it on an old PC
> and ssh into it if you absolutely must have glowing buttons.

Old PC?  All my old PCs have X86 processors and they're running Linux. 
Are you saying there are sources of extremely cheap PPC motherboards to 
stick in a PC chasis?

> (I don't think anybody has attempted Bochs integration before), it makes
> sense to get it out the way. But - if you want to leave it until later, 
> you do it how you think is best.

Bochs has full support for Mac OS X including a .dmg binary on their 
download page, so the port for that package is done already by the Bochs 
team.  The tricky bit will be going from Bochs virtual machine approach 
to an in-process extension sort of deal.

Mac OS X  has had lots of attention from folks doing source level 
porting, notably the Fink group which has a Debian-based apt-get for a 
large number of the most used package.  Even OpenOffice can launch and 
do a few things.

But as I've said, I'm not really keen on making large changes in two 
directions at once.  Hopefully some more folks with ideas and skills 
will get interested in Wine for Mac OS X.

I think I will investigate the Linux compatible angle for a bit.  I've 
already had some interest from some hard core Linux kernel hackers 
(although they seem pretty convinced Mach was the wrong solution, it is 
here to stay and at least the microkernel approach means we can neatly 
have multiple environments).

Jim