On Tue, Aug 29, 2000 at 12:32:59AM -0700, Ryan Fields wrote:
> Dear NetBSD Help,
> 
> My friends and I were wondering about the concept of binary emulation on 
> NetBSD. Specifically, is it possible to run Linux software, Solaris software 
> and/or HP-UX software on a NetBSD system? Example: StarOffice 5.2 for Linux 
> or Solaris, would it be possible to run it on NetBSD? I believe someone told 
> me that they run Netscape for Linux on a NetBSD system, but I would also 
> like to know would Solaris or HP-UX software work on NetBSD?

binary emulation isn't more than system call emulations. The binary itself
runs natively on the processor, so you can't run binary compiled for another
CPU than the one you have: you can run linux/i386 binaries on a NetBSD/i386
system, or Solaris/sparc binaries on a NetBSD/sparc system (and
Solaris/PC on a NetBSD/i386 system). I think HP-UX/m68k (i.e. HP-UX for
the hp300/400 machines) should run on a NetBSD/m68k machine (mac68k, sun3,
hp300, amiga, atari, etc). But you can't run a sparc binary on a PC running
NetBSD, you would need to emulate the CPU for this.

And yes, netscape for linux/i386 runs on a NetBSD/i386 system;
as does StarOffice 5.1. I think 5.2 should work too. They're all in the
package collection http://www.NetBSD.org/Documentation/software/packages.html

--
Manuel Bouyer, LIP6, Universite Paris VI.           Manuel.Bouyer@lip6.fr
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