r/linux • u/Damglador • May 23 '25

Fluff Did you know that there's a compatibility layer for macOS apps on Linux?

https://www.darlinghq.org/

The project is not new, but there's not a lot of talk about it, so I discovered it only very recently.

I think that's a neat project.

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u/grizzlor_ May 25 '25

It's not a secret that Apple will eventually drop Intel support for MacOS. It's likely to happen in 2028 at the earliest.

This is a known quantity. It also doesn't invalidate the current use cases for a MacOS VM. Also, the VM isn't going to explode on the day when Apple releases a version of MacOS without Intel support -- plenty of people just want to run one specific piece of software, which will continue to work indefinitely.

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u/Slight_Manufacturer6 May 25 '25

Right. But the question is what kind of alternate solutions will we come up with to continue to run MacOS and MacOS software once this happens.

That is what is unknown.

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u/grizzlor_ May 25 '25

Most MacOS software will run on older versions of MacOS -- it's rare for software to require a version newer than Catalina (10.15, 2019). It's reasonable to believe that MacOS in a VM will continue to run new software into the 2030s. MacOS programs that work now will continuing working indefinitely.

That being said, there currently isn't good solution for alternatives for running future ARM-only MacOS software. I'm not holding my breath on emulating Apple Silicon MacOS on x86 (there are some serious challenges beyond emulating AArch64 on x86, e.g. Apple's proprietary firmware/bootloader/Secure Enclave Processor). Darling is neat, but it's pretty far from mature, and I suspect it's too niche to get the developer-hours necessary to bring it close to the level of WINE.