What about Linux-on-Mac?

[Clinton MacDonald]

Mr. Roy:

Steve Roy wrote:
> I got Mac-on-Linux to run and it works fine with
> my setup. However I can't help but wonder if it's
> possible to do the opposite. Instead of running
> Mac OS X within Linux, how about running Linux
> within Mac OS X? Is there such a piece of software
> out there?

There is -- sort of. If you are running Mac OS X, Apple has an X11 
server (client? server? I am never sure with X) built in:

<http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/x11/>

Then, have a look at the Fink Project, which is a repository for 
hundreds of Open Source applications recompiled for Mac OS X:

<http://fink.sourceforge.net/>

You can even run KDE and Gnome under Mac OS X. The best of all worlds.

> That would be tremendously useful for me because I
> run Linux mostly just to test my Java software.

Mac OS X already has Java built in. You can even use Java syntax to code 
native Cocoa applications (or so they tell me -- I am not a coder).

However, it is not my impression that Java is Open Source, which leads 
me to go out on a limb and suggest that a Linux flavor of Java will 
*not* be available for Fink.

Good luck!

Best wishes,
Clint