Darling Still Has A Goal Of Running macOS Apps On Linux

Darling is the open-source project we first covered back in 2012 that aimed to be able to run macOS software (binaries) on Linux. It's what Wine is to running Windows programs on Linux but rather to be able to handle Apple/Mac software. While we haven't heard much from the project recently, they still are pursuing their goal.

Over the years Darling has made some project on handling Mac binaries on Linux albeit times that the project seemed on hiatus without any development work. The last time we covered Darling on Phoronix was in November of 2017 when they were still aiming for macOS apps on Linux.

One of the Darling developers wrote into Phoronix on Thursday to share that the project is alive and they'll begin doing quarterly status updates on their project with its ambitious goals. Their latest obstacle for being able to run macOS GUI applications on Linux is handling around Linux's native OpenGL drivers and other native libraries. But aside from that obstacle, they now have the macOS Git software running on Linux (not that there would be any real-world reason for using macOS Git on Linux), various elements of ensuring the infrastructure is in place for running Xcode (albeit blocked by the GUI road-block), Python 3 multi-threading support now works, improved xtrace handling, and other development work.

Those wishing to find out more about this ambitious community open-source project for running macOS software on Linux can read their Q1'2019 quarterly blog post on DarlingHQ.org.