I am a member of the same club
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Hmm I need to read more about it.. thanks for sharing!
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also more background here
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I’d love it if some of my favourite Linux apps were available on MacOS with “brew install…” Damn! But pretty sure 99% of them are terminal / CLI / tty apps anyway…
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Porting Linux apps to BSD is not straightforward.
BSD system calls are different.
There is a Linux compatability mode in BSD… it runs Linux apps without the need to port them . Does MacOS have Linux compatability mode?
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What apps are you thinking about ?
I use
To look up apps I use to find the equivalent
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Now I come to think of it - there’s probably only one - Sayonara Player… it’s been ported to ARM64 on Linux - just need ARM64 on MacOS 
The UNIX base of MacOS is BSD based (aka “Darwin”) - but the frontend DE is not… So porting a Linux app to MacOS is not straightforward… There’s a few apps I use on both MacOS and Linux - probably Synergy KVM being the chief one - and - “Resilio Sync” - but - the Linux version doesn’t have a GUI - just a WebUI - where-as on Windows and MacOS it has a full desktop application…
Anyway - “homebrew” takes care of most, if not all, of the CLI stuff I use on MacOS… Also some GUI stuff too - like VLC and MPV… neofetch, fastfetch, kpcli (Keepass CLI), btop, yt-dlp, bandcamp-dl, ffmpeg, iperf3, dmi-decode… probably many more…
╭─x@methone.local ~
╰─➤ fastfetch
..' x@methone
,xNMM. ---------
.OMMMMo OS: macOS 15.1 24B83 arm64
lMM" Host: MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020)
.;loddo:. .olloddol;. Kernel: 24.1.0
cKMMMMMMMMMMNWMMMMMMMMMM0: Uptime: 1 day, 34 mins
.KMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMWd. Packages: 237 (brew), 4 (brew-cask)
XMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMX. Shell: zsh 5.9
;MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM: Display (Color LCD): 2880x1800 @ 60Hz (as 1440x900) [Built-in] *
:MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM: Display (LEN G32qc-10): 2560x1440 @ 144Hz [External]
.MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMX. DE: Aqua
kMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMWd. WM: Quartz Compositor
'XMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMk WM Theme: Multicolor (Dark)
'XMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMK. Font: .AppleSystemUIFont [System], Helvetica [User]
kMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMd Cursor: Fill - Black, Outline - White (81px)
;KMMMMMMMWXXWMMMMMMMk. Terminal: sshd-session: x@ttys001
"cooc*" "*coo'" CPU: Apple M1 (8) @ 3.20 GHz
GPU: Apple M1 (8) [Integrated]
Memory: 5.73 GiB / 8.00 GiB (72%)
Swap: Disabled
Disk (/): 172.69 GiB / 228.27 GiB (76%) - apfs [Read-only]
Disk (/Volumes/DUNGSAMV): 148.03 GiB / 460.07 GiB (32%) - apfs [External]
Local IP (en8): REDACTED/14 *
Battery: 80% [AC connected]
Power Adapter: 45W
Locale: en_AU.UTF-8
████████████████████████
████████████████████████
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OK, gui apps would be difficult then.
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But not impossible - I already mentioned that VLC and MPV can be installed via homebrew…
I think the brew package that enables one to run ported GUI apps is “xquartz” (the MacOS DE is called “Quartz” I think)… MacOs can also run some x86 code on M1/M2/M3 (i.e. “Rosetta” to run x86 apps on arm64 - Rosetta was originally written to run PowerPC code on x86)…
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What about the reverse… running MacOS apps in Linux.?
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I cannot try it as my mac now runs lmde as it was too old to run the new versions of mac os but I did have
I cannot think of a mac app I need on linux, I have enough choice in the repositories
But the mac software for text processing (pages) and spreadsheet (numbers) give me issues when opening in libre office
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I don’t hate Ubuntu, but I choose to avoid using it because it is developed by a commercial company/corporation. My first distribution was Mandrake Linux. It was developed by Mandrake, a commercial company that made it’s money by selling technical support subscriptions to companies/users. After several evolutionary changes/mergers with other distributions of the time, the Mandrake company stopped developing/providing the distribution, ending support for users. I used a few other distributions until several members of the Mandrake development team (who found themselves unemployed) organized a community-driven fork of Mandrake, named Mageia, at which point in time, I switched to using it. When Mageia reached version 8, I encountered a few issues I could not overcome, so I began distro-hoping, until I encountered Garuda-KDE-Lite GNU/Linux (my current distribution of choice).
My point in briefly describing my GNU/Linux distribution history is to illustrate why I have such a strong bias against any GNU/Linux distribution that is developed/distributed by any commercial entity, and Ubuntu and it’s variants are developed by Canonical, a commercial company/corporation. All such entities exist to generate profit. When they no longer generate profit, they stop doing business - period. I won’t go through that experience again. There are plenty of community-driven distributions available, none of which will end their existence due to a lack of profitability, dating all the way back to the beginning - Debian is an excellent example, and Ubuntu is forked from it.
I’m perfectly happy with using community-driven distributions, thank you very much,
Ernie
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The hope is, that open source protects you from that because if a well used distro fails someone else will be able to pick it up… like happened with Mandrake and Mageia.
If Canonical failed, would someone pick up Ubuntu development? We cant be sure?
If Debian failed , would someone pick up Debian development… I think that is more likely.
The thing is, all Linux distros have a lot in common… they use the same kernel and share lots of packages. So, in a sense, the existence of many linux distros is insurance against any one failing. Shifting to another distro may be a bit of a nuisance, but it is not impossible. I share my work among several distros. That is a form of insurance too.
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I agree. Perhaps I should have included my reasoning about community-driven distributions. In a community-driven distribution, if a member of the development team departs for some reason (disagreement with the direction the distribution is taking, family needs, age, etc.), other community members can fill the resulting void. While commercially supported distributions have user communities as well, it is much less likely that, in the case where it loses the support of it’s commercial entity, it’s user community members will take over the roles of development team members, so it becomes more likely that it will cease to exist, and it’s community members will have to find another distribution.
Back in the late 1990s, when I found Mandrake (it was the third or fourth distribution I tried to install on the computer I had at that time), it was the first distribution that booted up and ran successfully. While I still had to figure out how to get my Internet connection and sound card working, I was able to communicate with Mandrake user community members from Windows to get help in solving those problems. The difference for me was that with the distributions I tried previously, when I asked for help, I received no responses from those communities, even though I was able to access (and include) the boot logs from my failed installation attempts in my requests. It was the Mandrake user community that made the distribution so special to me, and made its demise affect me so deeply.
From that time onward, my criteria/requirements regarding any distribution I try, starts with how well the distribution works on my hardware, followed by how well it supports my customization efforts, coupled with how the user community responds when I ask for, or offer help regarding any issues I encounter/learn to solve.
For me, distribution choice is as simple as that, and it’s why I’m using Garuda-KDE-Lite GNU/Linux today,
Ernie
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That is not a bias against Ubuntu, and it is not unreasonable either.
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Thank you for that. What I’m explaining here though, is why I choose to avoid using any distribution that is developed by, or is fully dependent for it’s existence on, any commercial entity, and Ubuntu et-al is/are distributions that fit the above description, so I will not use/depend on it/them. I don’t think my reasons are at all unreasonable either. That’s why I say I have no hate for these distributions, even though I will not use them.
Ernie
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I am. IMO, it’s the best lightweight Linux distro and one of the best Debian-based distros.
People have an unreasonable bias against Ubuntu, because they can’t accept that home users are not priority for Canonical anymore. Everyone who understand that, doesn’t complain about Ubuntu - they choose/move to other distributions, instead.
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Even if this is true, why would anyone expect things to be any different? Canonical is a business. As such, their primary obligation/objective is to generate profit for their investors/stakeholders. This would naturally make business/paying customers their second highest priority, because these customers generate the profit Canonical needs to continue doing business. Always remember, businesses exist to generate profit. When they stop doing so, they stop doing business. I know nothing about the details of Canonical’s business model, but the one thing I do know is that if they intend to continue to remain in existence, they must generate profit, period. Why would anyone expect anything else from them?
Ernie
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Of course, the main goal of every business is to generate profit. Everyday we use products and services of countless businesses and, somehow, that’s fine, but Linux distribution? Nah… Has to be developed by a group of nerds in a basement.
I just had a look at your profile. It says that you’re OS agnostic and mainly use Windows 11. So, you choose to avoid Ubuntu (because Canonical is a business), but are happy to use Windows (developed by one of the biggest businesses in the world)? This is a contradiction that makes it impossible to take your arguments seriously.
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That is close to my position.
Very few people would try to use RHEL at home, and Ubuntu is nearly in the same category.
When you tailor a distro for corporate use, it makes it a pain in the neck for home use.
The two are not compatible.
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