Last Updated on: 3rd January 2024, 04:12 pm
Web site: sourceforge.net/projects/mac-on-linux/
Category: Machine Emulators
Platform: Linux
License: GNU GPL
Interface: GUI
Wikipedia:
First release: June 1, 1997
Mac on Linux – it lets you run Mac OS (including OS X) under Linux/ppc. MOL is not an emulator but runs runs the OS directly without any CPU emulation. Moreover, NO ROM IMAGE is required.
Mac-on-Linux (MOL) allows you to run MacOS 9 and MacOS X from within Linux. It requires a Mac OS (9/X) and PowerPC computer. As it does not need to emulate a processor it runs at near native speeds.
MOL and Wine are quite different. Wine is an implementation of the Win32 API (that is, you do not need Windows to run Wine). MOL is a “virtual” machine. Theoretically, MOL allows you to boot any (PowerPC) OS within MOL (what is more or less specific to the OS is the boot-loader and a set of custom device drivers interfacing the “virtual” hardware of MOL). At the moment, MOL can run MacOS, MacOS X and Linux.
MOL runs for instance on the Pegasos board, the Teron board and on AmigaOne hardware. In short, MOL should run on any PowerPC hardware (with the except of 601-based systems). However, the EULA of MacOS prohibits its usage on non-Apple hardware (it is of course perfectly legal to use MOL to boot a second Linux though).