{"slug": "darling", "name": "Darling", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 9, "warners": 2, "score": 1.92, "rising": 3.0, "first": "2025-11-01", "latest": "2026-09-02", "why": "Are you familiar with the Darling project? https://github.com/darlinghq/darling", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 3, "compare": 1, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Are you familiar with the Darling project? https://github.com/darlinghq/darling", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "darlinghq.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.darlinghq.org", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Darling"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 792274401, "item_id": 49517150, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49517150", "by": "stuaxo", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I think Darling probably needs more people working on it.", "excerpt": "Wine has been going for a very long time - since 1993. When it started Windows was a lot smaller, so getting Windows 3.1 programs working was probably enough. There's too much history to cover in a quick comment. Wine has a lots of things that help - the compatibility database https://appdb.winehq.org/ is a good place for people to submit info on apps for instance, there's also a big test suite that runs against Wind", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Run macOS Software on Linux"}, {"id": 792192208, "item_id": 49512013, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49512013", "by": "efficax", "date": "2026-08-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "https://www.darlinghq.org/", "excerpt": "I dunno you could definitely do a \"wine but for macos\" kind of implementation, e.g., https://www.darlinghq.org/ without breaking IP laws", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "RavynOS: Pre-alpha open-source OS based on Darwin, FreeBSD, Apple open-source"}, {"id": 786340304, "item_id": 49146269, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49146269", "by": "13rac1", "date": "2026-08-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Are you familiar with the Darling project? https://github.com/darlinghq/darling", "excerpt": "Interesting project! A long term vision for MacOS applications is feasible given the success of WINE/Proton with Windows applications. Are you familiar with the Darling project? https://github.com/darlinghq/darling There's an open PR for ARM64 support https://github.com/darlinghq/darling/pull/1753 Could you combine efforts or do your goals differ too much?", "context": "", "use_case": "running macOS apps on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Kakehashi \u2013 Experimental userspace to run macOS binaries on Linux ARM"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 792531152, "item_id": 49533197, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49533197", "by": "cromka", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "is not exactly a sign of an actively-managed project", "excerpt": "Having experienced how much LLMs can help with reverse-engineering stuff, I wonder why such projects don't actually see unusual development speed-up. The things that are possible now with a fraction of time were previously reserved to the elite few. EDIT: although it looks like some try, e.g. https://github.com/darlinghq/darling/pull/1776 https://github.com/darlinghq/darling-xnu/pull/16 Sadly, the fact that there's n", "context": "", "use_case": "running macOS software on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Run macOS Software on Linux"}, {"id": 792258672, "item_id": 49516167, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49516167", "by": "porphyra", "date": "2026-08-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Darling only targets x86_64 stuff.", "excerpt": "In theory, running Apple Silicon apps on ARM64 linux machines would be really nice. But we are still far from having a performant and feature-complete implementation of doing so. Darling only targets x86_64 stuff. Still, it's a cool project. Kinda sad that there are very few updates though [1] [1] https://blog.darlinghq.org/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Run macOS Software on Linux"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["running macos software on linux", "macos app compatibility on linux", "running macos apps on linux"], "compared": [{"slug": "wine", "name": "Wine", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "ravynos", "name": "ravynOS", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49515830", "title": "Run macOS Software on Linux", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49511534", "title": "RavynOS: Pre-alpha open-source OS based on Darwin, FreeBSD, Apple open-source", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49506978", "title": "ReactOS 0.4.16", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49145937", "title": "Show HN: Kakehashi \u2013 Experimental userspace to run macOS binaries on Linux ARM", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45997212", "title": "New OS aims to provide (some) compatibility with macOS", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45706901", "title": "Nisus Writer: Schr\u00f6dinger's Word Processor", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1, "compare": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 2, "warn": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 792531152, "item_id": 49533197, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49533197", "by": "cromka", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "is not exactly a sign of an actively-managed project", "excerpt": "Having experienced how much LLMs can help with reverse-engineering stuff, I wonder why such projects don't actually see unusual development speed-up. The things that are possible now with a fraction of time were previously reserved to the elite few. EDIT: although it looks like some try, e.g. https://github.com/darlinghq/darling/pull/1776 https://github.com/darlinghq/darling-xnu/pull/16 Sadly, the fact that there's n", "context": "", "use_case": "running macOS software on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Run macOS Software on Linux"}, {"id": 792274401, "item_id": 49517150, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49517150", "by": "stuaxo", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I think Darling probably needs more people working on it.", "excerpt": "Wine has been going for a very long time - since 1993. When it started Windows was a lot smaller, so getting Windows 3.1 programs working was probably enough. There's too much history to cover in a quick comment. Wine has a lots of things that help - the compatibility database https://appdb.winehq.org/ is a good place for people to submit info on apps for instance, there's also a big test suite that runs against Wind", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Run macOS Software on Linux"}, {"id": 792258672, "item_id": 49516167, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49516167", "by": "porphyra", "date": "2026-08-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Darling only targets x86_64 stuff.", "excerpt": "In theory, running Apple Silicon apps on ARM64 linux machines would be really nice. But we are still far from having a performant and feature-complete implementation of doing so. Darling only targets x86_64 stuff. Still, it's a cool project. Kinda sad that there are very few updates though [1] [1] https://blog.darlinghq.org/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Run macOS Software on Linux"}, {"id": 792221984, "item_id": 49513874, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49513874", "by": "ripdog", "date": "2026-08-31", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the https://www.darlinghq.org project is doing MacOS app compat on Linux", "excerpt": "But do real apps actually use them directly? Or only through the userland libraries? Just FYI, the https://www.darlinghq.org project is doing MacOS app compat on Linux - i.e. building the userland libraries.", "context": "", "use_case": "macOS app compatibility on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "RavynOS: Pre-alpha open-source OS based on Darwin, FreeBSD, Apple open-source"}, {"id": 792192208, "item_id": 49512013, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49512013", "by": "efficax", "date": "2026-08-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "https://www.darlinghq.org/", "excerpt": "I dunno you could definitely do a \"wine but for macos\" kind of implementation, e.g., https://www.darlinghq.org/ without breaking IP laws", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "RavynOS: Pre-alpha open-source OS based on Darwin, FreeBSD, Apple open-source"}, {"id": 792189201, "item_id": 49511825, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49511825", "by": "tech234a", "date": "2026-08-31", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "See also: https://www.darlinghq.org/", "excerpt": "See also: https://www.darlinghq.org/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "ReactOS 0.4.16"}, {"id": 786340304, "item_id": 49146269, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49146269", "by": "13rac1", "date": "2026-08-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Are you familiar with the Darling project? https://github.com/darlinghq/darling", "excerpt": "Interesting project! A long term vision for MacOS applications is feasible given the success of WINE/Proton with Windows applications. Are you familiar with the Darling project? https://github.com/darlinghq/darling There's an open PR for ARM64 support https://github.com/darlinghq/darling/pull/1753 Could you combine efforts or do your goals differ too much?", "context": "", "use_case": "running macOS apps on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Kakehashi \u2013 Experimental userspace to run macOS binaries on Linux ARM"}, {"id": 735976753, "item_id": 45998547, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45998547", "by": "rhet0rica", "date": "2025-11-20", "stance": "compare", "quote": "There is a WINE-analogous project, called Darling", "excerpt": "A lot of these questions are answered here: https://ravynos.com/faq To summarize... There is a WINE-analogous project, called Darling: https://www.darlinghq.org/ The goal for ravynOS is to be analogous to ReactOS. Much like ReactOS and WINE, ravynOS and Darling share a lot of Cocoa code. For the problem of OpenStep implementations specifically, a bespoke software stack has the benefit of being able to put Mach messag", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "New OS aims to provide (some) compatibility with macOS"}, {"id": 732494192, "item_id": 45780887, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45780887", "by": "Frenchgeek", "date": "2025-11-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "A quick search pointed me to https://github.com/darlinghq/darling", "excerpt": "A quick search pointed me to https://github.com/darlinghq/darling", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nisus Writer: Schr\u00f6dinger's Word Processor"}]}