distribution-macOS VS FreeRDP

Every Christmas break I always hope I'll have the emotional energy to dig back into https://github.com/PureDarwin/PureDarwin#readme and see if I can get it to boot, even on VirtualBox, let alone some hackintosh friendly hardware like OP did

I am super, super cognizant that the devil's in the proverbial details, but they sure do seem to publish a lot of macOS into the open <https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/distribution-macO...> so my interest is to map out the parts that are missing

I'm also aware that Darling exists (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38423469 ) but if it's anything like Wine -- no, thank you. The only reason Wine (and their CrossOver friends) are required to exist is because there's no suitable open source release of Windows, so emulating the bugs is glucose cheaper. I had high hopes for ReactOS when I was in college, but I think they're just pushing that rock uphill (although I am super glad the project exists)

Having said all of that, don't overlook that even if I snapped my fingers and had a PureDarwin built 14.3 .iso this very second, the supply chain for x86_64 applications for any such OS is likely going the way of the dodo, since it won't be in a vendor's best interest to dedicate resources to building releases for what they assume is a dead platform

To be fair, linking to the Releases page when there are no release notes are all here was completely useless for browsing. Linking directly to the tag on the Git repo would make it obvious that submodules are being used and allows browsing directly:

https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/distribution-macO...

I doubt most readers on HN are going to clone this locally and I also doubt anyone expects a release archive to contain Git submodules. This isn't to fault the repo authors, since we have to note that there isn't an actual "GitHub Release" here, it's just the automatic archive from GitHub for a certain tag.

Vendors have been selling you open-source software since the '80s. Here's macOS 13.2's open-source components. Darwin isn't really a thing any more, but around half of what Apple doesn't distribute any more is open source as well.

Darwin is open source. Here's the repo for their kernel: https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/xnu/tree/main. The userspace stuff can be found here: https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/distribution-macO...

#======================================================================== # NAME: run1in.sh # # PURPOSE: # # Login to Windows and Execute a Remote App to display on your # Linux Desktop using the Linux application called "freerdp" with: # # Since we are "localized" (Host to Container on the Host) we ignore # (re "don't use" RDP normal "certificate" authentication. # #------------------------------------------------------------- # xfreerdp command line options used are: # # (bpp:32) 32 bits per pixel (ie display resolution) # # a dynamic remote desktop "window" that's can be # resized/minimized/maximized on your Linux Desktop # # There are 2 Prerequisites for use of this script: # # 1) You have installed freerdp on your Linux Host # $ sudo apt install freerdp2-x11 -y # -or- # $ sudo apt install freerdp2-wayland -y # # 2) You have created a folder named "shared-folder" on your Linux # Host # example: $ mkdir /home/yourID/shared-folder # # You will use that folder to for exchange of files to/from your # Linux "/home/yourID/shared-folder" and the "Windows" system # you are connecting to! # # On Windows you have to click on "Network" to see the # "shared-folder" to copy/cut&paste/rename files to/from your # Linux Host's "shared-folder" /home/yourID/shared-folder # # Enable use of Clipboard to/from Windows and the Linux Host # # Enable Sound using currently utilizing Pulseaudio on the Linux Host as # neither XRDP or freerdp support/implement Pipewire yet. # # On login to Windows execute the Explorer.exe application which you had # previously setup as a Windows "Remote App" using Kim Knight's awesome # "RemoteAppTool" Windows native application (its on Github). # # On xfreerdp login to Windows the "Remote App".. Window's "Explorer.exe" # will start-up and be presented to the Linux Desktop User as # just another Linux Desktop application's "window". So you will see # Window's "Explorer.exe" presented which you can resize, minimize or # maximize --- or copy files to/from Windows & your Linux Host # /home/yourID/shared-folder # #--------- # NOTE #--------- # There are many more "xfreerdp" command options available: # # see: https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/wiki/CommandLineInterface # # One in particular is can be very useful: # "printer:," : Redirect a specific printer from your # Linux Host to your xfreerdp Windows Desktop "session" so you can print # from Windows to your local Linux attached Printer. #========================================================================

aFreeRDP (version 2.11.0): FreeRDP is a free remote desktop protocol client

On the linux side, recently I hacked on freerdp to get basic pen & eraser functionality working from the X11 client to be able to remote from linux to windows: https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/pull/9080

Our Linux and Mac users have long used RDP to log into Windows. That's largely obsolete, so the plan is for the remaining Windows to be Infrastructure-as-Code via DSC.

FreeRDP has had RemoteApp support for a long time. I'd try out that client and see if you could get debugging messages -- or possibly it might just work? They have documentation on the protocol, and pointers to Microsoft's documentation.

For Linux there is XRDP as well as FreeRDP https://www.freerdp.com both open sourced recreations of the original RDP standard and available for Operating Systems like Linux.