Darwine: Run PC apps without Virtual PC


MacWindows reports that an open-source project to port WINE to the Mac has begun. Cleverly named Darwine, the project team states that work is currently in a "pre-alpha stage."

Here's the gist of what they're trying to do:

"WINE is software for PCs running Linux or FreeBSD Unix. WINE runs Windows applications without running Windows--the Windows apps appear directly in a Unix windowing environment...

"DARWINE will also run on a PC running Darwin, Apple's open source Mac OS X core based on FreeBSD. To run on a Mac and Mac OS X, DARWINE will need an x86 emulator. The DARWINE project is working on integrating an emulator, such as Bochs, but has not gotten that far yet. However, even with an emulator, a DARWINE for Mac OS X could run faster than Virtual PC due to the absence of Windows itself."

The words "Faster than Microsoft" are music to this pundits ears. The words "sans Microsoft" are verily symphonic...

Editor's note: As with all things open source, community and industry support are key. Apple can't for political reasons directly get behind the effort, so that leaves it to the rest of us...

Do you think the Mac community will get behind Darwine?