So, I tried to open one of the default apps that came with Darwine today and I got this: (click for larger version)
EDIT: These PNGs are downloading instead of opening in the browser window. I do not know why.
Combined with this article that I read earlier today about PEs and Wine in Leopard, I would not be surprised to learn if Apple is planning to integrate some form of optimized-wine into their product. Most of the code is already there, they just need to make it faster and more reliable. However, this is the optimistic side of me.
The pessimist side of me is citing an article on Roughly Drafted that provides some pretty concrete evidence of no windows app support for Mac OS X.
The optimist side of me counters that with a thought on something sly that Apple might do: build a windows executor using either the wine kernel or start from scratch and write a kernel extension that executes windows binaries, and then require native windows libraries and DLLs. Having native DLLs could make it as painless as: Insert your Windows XP or Vista CD to enable the running of Windows Applications on Mac OS X. Once the CD is inserted, the correct files are copied and Windows apps run at native speeds, including games. Of course, this would be Intel only.
Seriously, I may be overreacting about one dialogue box, but the wording on it was pretty definitive: "Are you sure you want to run this windows app?" basically. And when compared to the Mac OS X app dialogue, it has a difference of one word: Windows.
Technorati Tags: Apple, CrossOver, Leopard, Mac OS X, Open Source, Windows, UNIX, Windows, Wine
4 comments:
Actually, opening a downloaded file/package is not "running" the app. It is more likely just opening the installer or package. In any event, it's a security measure primarily. All the same, the fact that .exe files are treated this way is interesting.
note: OS X treats the file extension ".exe"
as just another thing that it can open....
IF virtual PC or some other emulator is installed...
been this way for a long time: double click on a ".exe"
and Virtual PC will launch...
the difference here seems to be the addition of the word "windows" to the dialog box
@dtheory: VirtualPC registering .exe as a known-filetype is just the usual "this app responds to these extensions".
The interesting thing here is that there is a Windows-specific dialogue-box appearing, provided by the operating system...
Virtual PC is not installed, nor any other emulator. I am running darwine, but have also tested it without darwine, and it opens as a hex file in Text Edit.
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