Longene: The Linux Kernel With Windows Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Longene: The Linux Kernel With Windows Support

This morning after providing benchmarks of FreeBSD with Linux binary compatibility for gaming, which allows unaltered 32-bit Linux binaries to be executed seamlessly with the FreeBSD kernel (and in a rather fast manner), I was reminded on Twitter about another interesting project: Longene. Longene is a "Linux Unified Kernel" that attempts to implement Microsoft Windows APIs within the Linux kernel. In other words, Windows binary compatibility for the Linux kernel, including for Windows device drivers...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=OTg4NQ

[RealNC]

Torvalds once expressed his endorsement of this stuff, as it enhances interoperability. However, the code is probably not remotely up to kernel standards.

[insanemal]

I'm more interested in how they will resolve things like, making windows video drivers work with Xorg.
I can think of ways to resolve it.. but they are all kind of nasty.

[elvis]

Kernel-level Windows compatibility? I shudder to think of the security risks.

[mrugiero]

Longene is not anything but ReactOS code merged into the Linux kernel...

[insanemal]

Longene is not anything but ReactOS code merged into the Linux kernel...

You got some code snippets to prove it?
Or to quote wikipedia CITATION NEEDED

[mrugiero]

You got some code snippets to prove it?
Or to quote wikipedia CITATION NEEDED

Hmmm... seems like I was wrong, I was sure to remember I read it in Longene's or ReactOS forum, but since I can't find it, I suppose I was wrong, sorry.

[mrugiero]

Well, I've found this:
http://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtop...longene#p67337

Although it is not an official source (because it's not said by Longene devs), this might be the cause I thought it.

[TechMage89]

Honestly, I think this looks like a solution in search of a problem. For Windows compatibility in Linux we have Wine, which, IMO, doesn't suffer from any significant performance problems this is likely to solve. If you want an open-source Windows-like OS, ReactOS is probably a better idea.

It seems like this is attempting clumsily to shoehorn together two architectures at a level they are manifestly not designed for.

I wish more effort would go into Wine and ReactOS, honestly. This seems like a distraction.

[ninez]

Longene is a waste of time.

I tried it a year or so ago, at a time when this article probably should have been written, being as there were a few discussions on Wine-dev List about it, articles on the web, and benchmarks. it seems funny, that Phoronix would publish an article randomly about it now, it doesn't seem to me, that development is happening very fast, nor has this project gained any popularity.

benchmark article here:

http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/2010060303135OSKNDV

Myself, when i tried Longene, i wasn't impressed, at all. I took a look at it, because i had thought it might run a bit quicker, less latency than with normal Wine. (as in theory it should be a bit quicker, latency wise - read the benchmark article, to see what i mean). I personally didn't find any advantages over using Wine, and found many many disadvantages to being stuck with a 'generic' 2.6.34 kernel, that has some ugly hacks and other crap enabled/disabled...

from what i remember the Wine-devs didn't have much faith in the project or code either. I don't think the ReactOS people did, either.

I don't think Longene will ever become popular, I think focusing on Wine is better.