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HangingClowns
September 28th, 2009, 11:31 AM
I have a weird problem with a school I am at in China. They're making me use Windows to connect to the internet, but I'd really rather not. I found a way for me to use Ubuntu to connect to the internet, but I wasn't sure if it was possible for it to work on Mac OS X. How will I know if it will work? Is it a trial and error? Here's the directions on how to get it to work on Ubuntu:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=681557&page=2

At this point, anything but Windows would be nice. I have another laptop I bought here to use because I got tired of getting 6 crashes in 3 hours from Skype not working right with Windows.

Thanks.
Bachstelze
September 28th, 2009, 11:48 AM
Apparently, the program comes as a Linux binary, so it won't work on OS X. You need to get the source for it so you can compile it on OS X.
handy
September 28th, 2009, 11:50 AM
The how-to you posted a link to certainly looked very Ubuntu/Debian/Linux specific.

Follow Bachstelze's advice. :)
HangingClowns
September 28th, 2009, 12:10 PM
Will do. Sorry to be such a noob. I know that they seem to share a lot of commonality, but I guess it has more to do with how you compile it/what you compile it for, rather than similarities. I was just wondering, what kind of cross compatibility is there between Mac and Linux (just for my own amusement)?
Bachstelze
September 28th, 2009, 12:16 PM
At binary-level: none. Darwin and Linux are different kernels so a binary compiled for one won't work on the other without some kind of compatibility layer (like e.g. WINE, which lets you run Windows binaries on Linux). AFAIK, there is no such Linux binary compatiblity layer for OS X, so you have no way to run Linux binaries on OS X.

At source-level is where the "similarities" come into play: some (most?) programs can be compiled and run on both Linux and OS X without any change to the source code.
handy
September 28th, 2009, 12:26 PM
Codeweavers' Crossover products are also available for OS X.

The Codeweavers team are the biggest supporters of Wine. It is where some major Wine guys can work on Wine & get paid so they can eat too. :)
HangingClowns
September 28th, 2009, 12:52 PM
Is it just me, or are you guys like twins or something? Is there always a certain order for you guys to post? ha ha

Thanks for clearing that up. Makes perfect sense to me, now. I wish there was some type of compatibility layer. I do miss certain things about my Mac, but at least I can use Linux. Anything is better than BSOD.