Development [LWN.net]

Run Linux apps on other platforms with LINA

By Forrest Cook
September 26, 2007

LINA is an interoperability product that is being developed by Lina Software:

With LINA, applications written for Linux run with native look and feel on Windows, Mac OS X and UNIX operating systems. LINA is a thin virtual layer that enables developers to write and compile code using ordinary Linux tools, then run that code on a variety of operating systems. For users, LINA runs invisibly in the background, enabling them to install and run these Linux applications as if they were native to that users' operating system.

The LINA FAQ explains some of the project details. LINA has been in development for four years and there are several patents pending on the LINA technology. In addition:

LINA is written in C and C++ and uses some Python build tools.
LINA currently runs on Fedora7, OpenSUSE 10.2, Ubuntu 7.04, Mac OS X v. , Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows 2003.
Plans to support Solaris and OpenBSD are underway.
Command line and web applications can be run on LINA.
GUI applications that use the LINA library are supported.
Plans are underway for support of GUI applications that use Qt and GTK+.
Supported languages include C and C++ with plans to add Perl, Python and Ruby.
LINA packages consist of Linux binaries packed into a .zip file.
LINA applications currently have a 2X performance hit, that should improve with time.
The LINA platform is approximately 75MB in size.
LINA does not currently support 3D graphics acceleration or X11 over SSL.
Lina Software is offering support for LINA.

See the LINA technology description for more information on the project.

Lina Software recently announced the release of LINA (starting with version 0.7.0) under the GPLv2 license:

The operating systems supported in this release include Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 2003, Mac OSX, Fedora 7, OpenSUSE 10.2, and Ubuntu 7.04. The LINA library currently supports C++ development. Future releases of LINA will support applications written in any language native to Linux. "Open Source is pivotal to our rapid growth, and it's critical that we engage the worldwide developer community," said Nile Geisinger, CTO of Lina Software. "We're very interested in developer feedback as we improve usability." Over the next several months, our engineers will focus on enhancing usability and incorporating community feedback. In Q4 2007, Lina Software will release developer binaries and application program interfaces for building cross-platform applications. We will also port the GTK and QT libraries to the LINA APIs to allow applications written to these libraries to run on LINA.

The LINA source code is available for download here, the build instructions explain how to compile the software. Some LINA screenshots show the software in action.

If you have some simple Linux command line applications that you need to run across numerous platforms, LINA may be a solution that is worth further investigation.

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