Darling (software)
Darling is a free and open-source macOS compatibility layer for Linux. It duplicates functions of macOS by providing alternative implementations of the libraries and frameworks that macOS programs call. This method of duplication differs from other methods that might also be considered emulation, where macOS programs run in a virtual machine. Darling has been called the counterpart to WINE for running macOS apps.
A simple 'HelloWorld' Cocoa app demonstrated on macOS (left) and Linux (right) | |
| Original author(s) | Luboš Doležel |
|---|---|
| Preview release | 0.1.20220213
/ 13 February 2022 |
| Repository | github.com/darlinghq/darling |
| Operating system | Linux |
| Type | Compatibility layer |
| License | Various, primarily GPLv3 |
| Website | darlinghq |
The project started in the summer of 2012 and builds on a previous project, named maloader, which was discontinued due to a lack of time. The layer has been shown to work with many console apps, such as Midnight Commander, The Unarchiver, Python, etc. on the layer, but it also has basic support for graphical applications based on the Cocoa framework. Darling has the ability to extract Apple Disk Images.
The project aims to support iOS applications in the future.