Linux, Windows apps coming to the iPhone
By Ronald O Carlson
Apple’s hot selling, zeitgeist defining handset shows its versatility in the hands of third-party developers. But, will we ever live to see a triple boot iPhone running OS X, Windows and Linux side-by-side?
Linux on the iPhone (via iPhone-dev.org) has announced that, true to their name, they’ve ported the Linux 2.6 kernel to the iPhone and it’s running, somewhat mostly. Further, the work done so far runs on both first and second generation handsets.
“I’m pleased to announce that the Linux 2.6 kernel has been ported to Apple’s iPhone platform, with support for the first and second generation iPhones as well as the first generation iPod touch. This is a rough first draft of the port, and many drivers are still missing, but it’s enough that a real alternative operating system is running on the iPhone”—planetbeing, project lead.
See also—Demo video
At this point and time, there are more things that don’t work than do—the iPhone’s vaunted touch interface, wireless network and accelerometer aren’t functional yet—all kind of important stuff. Still, it’s early days.
For its part, Citrix (via MacWindows) has announced that their Mac development team in Chalfont, UK have just recently finished porting the core XenApp engine over to the iPhone platform, which allows Windows apps to run to in limited fashion.
“While serious content creation might have to wait for an external keyboard and monitor, consuming content like reviewing a spreadsheet or a patient’s records and simple tasks like approving an expense report are quite frictionless”
—Albert Grandville, product manager, Citrix Systems.See also—Demo video
Like the lads working on Linux on the iPhone, Citrix has accomplished much, but there’s obviously still a lot of work to do.
Windows applications and Linux running on the iPhone are impressive feats and the best likely is yet to come—congratulations to both teams.
That said, one of the Macintosh’s greatest strengths is that it can run OS X, Windows and Linux side-by-side in emulation or boot into each individually, making the platform extremely versatile and a favorite with developers.
Could the iPhone ever that be flexible? The hardware might be capable in a generation or two, but it’s rather hard imaging Apple ever allowing it…
What’s your take?
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