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.

Run Linux apps on other platforms with LINA

Posted Sep 27, 2007 13:09 UTC (Thu) by scarabaeus (guest, #7142) [Link] (6 responses)

Hmm, both the article and the website are rather wishy-washy. How does LINA compare to wxWidgets, glib+GTK etc., which also allow cross-platform code development? I get the vague impression that LINA could be a "reverse WINE", i.e. a Linux emulator for Windows/Mac. OTOH, applications somehow need to be prepared for use with LINA. Hint: If you want people to use a tool, explain what the tool does! ;-)

Run Linux apps on other platforms with LINA

Posted Sep 27, 2007 15:50 UTC (Thu) by graydon (guest, #5009) [Link]

Agreed. If anyone who can actually extract (or happens to know) how this thing is working technically -- their "technology" page is completely unclear -- please post here. It looks curious but I've only got so much time to dig through PR looking for answers.

Run Linux apps on other platforms with LINA

Posted Sep 27, 2007 17:03 UTC (Thu) by IkeTo (subscriber, #2122) [Link] (1 responses)

> I get the vague impression that LINA could be a "reverse WINE", i.e. a
> Linux emulator for Windows/Mac. OTOH, applications somehow need to be
> prepared for use with LINA.

My guess is that it aims to be a "reverse WINE" by implementing the GNOME and KDE library using Windows API, but for the moment they didn't get the time to do so and thus create a "LINA library" which they can quickly implement both in the Linux side and the Windows side. Of course they need a Linux API as well, but that is probably mostly done just using Cygwin.

Run Linux apps on other platforms with LINA

Posted Sep 29, 2007 14:16 UTC (Sat) by tom_a (guest, #44927) [Link]

Article and openlina.org: Plans are underway for support of GUI applications that use Qt and GTK+.

Your guess is wrong. QT is not the KDE library and GTK+ is not the GNOME library.

Run Linux apps on other platforms with LINA

Posted Sep 27, 2007 19:45 UTC (Thu) by amikins (guest, #451) [Link] (2 responses)

In addition to the poor explanation for the mechanisms through which this functions, there's a highly suspicious entry in the FAQ for licensing. Taken at face value, this is indicating that you you use the LINA tools to build something the source for the project must be GPL'd..

Is it taking natively compilable Linux apps and compiling them using a seperate toolset, or must you port the application to their library set first?

If you can compile an unmodified source tree with this toolset, I don't see how they can claim you must distribute your source under the GPL, since it's clearly not a derivitive work at this point. If your application must be ported to the framework first, claiming this is a way of running "Linux" applications seems a little misleading.

I'm a little puzzled.

Run Linux apps on other platforms with LINA

Posted Sep 27, 2007 22:07 UTC (Thu) by moxfyre (guest, #13847) [Link]

I agree. How does it work?

Is LINA like Wine-in-reverse, implementing Linux APIs on Windows? If so, use Cygwin, which basically does just that.

Is it like wxWidgets, implementing one widget API on multiple platforms? If so, why not use wxWidgets already.

If it's something else... well then what is it?

Run Linux apps on other platforms with LINA

Posted Sep 28, 2007 19:16 UTC (Fri) by ewan (guest, #5533) [Link]

The argument would be that the resulting binary would be a derived work,
and you could either distribute it under the GPL, or not at all. If the
original project has a GPL incompatible license then you're stuck
with 'not at all'.

This is essentially the same case that's made for things linked to GPL
libraries as distinct from LGPL libraries.

Run Linux apps on other platforms with LINA

Posted Sep 27, 2007 21:59 UTC (Thu) by moxfyre (guest, #13847) [Link]

Um... why????

Qt and GTK toolkits already support Windows, so your GNOME and KDE apps can be made to run on Windows, and *many* already have (e.g. Gaim/Pidgin, Inkscape, etc.)

This seems like Wine in reverse! But Wine is only needed because there are so many *closed-source* Windows apps. If they were open-source, the worthwhile applications would likely get ported to Linux in a heartbeat. LINA seems unnecessary, because most of the cool Linux apps are open source and thus can be ported without an emulation layer. Open source projects tend to make efforts towards portability too. And I don't know of any closed-source Linux apps that don't have Windows versions as well... anyone?

Patents?

Posted Sep 28, 2007 5:15 UTC (Fri) by JesseW (subscriber, #41816) [Link]

The FAQ also includes nonsense about patents. It says:

Q: Do you have any patents on LINA technologies?
A: We have several patents pending on LINA. In accordance with the GPL, Open Source users of LINA will be able to use LINA without obtaining a patent license.

This is nonsense. If a patent covers something, you need a patent license in order to use it. In fact, the GPL requires that certain patent licenses be granted, and lays out when and to whom. I presume LINA meant that they won't demand royalties for their patents, but that's not what they said.

All in all, it looks like the LINA folks have a very bad grasp of both the legal and technical aspects of their business. Not a good sign. I'm surprised Forrest Cook gave them such a positive writeup.