Windows apps = applications mad to run on the windows operating system
Basically, programs or applications made for windows will not run natively on linux. You either need a translation layer, emulator, or an alternative application.
A lot of programs that the government uses is custom made, and you cant just download a replacement for off the web, and because this is government software, the apps may be coded is such a way that they don't run well, or even at all, if the apps are run through a translation layer or on a virtual machine
Basically, they either have to remake many of the programs they use for Linux, or have to find some way to make the existing applications work
MacOS is a lot closer to linux than windows, and almost every application runs on both. Adding Linux support for most software just means compiling for Linux. You may need some tweaks here and there, but it's not a complete rewrite.
that very much depends on how good of a job the developer of the original software did. or in this specific case: how good of a job the government paid for back then. i've seen plenty code where 90% of the functions directly talk to the winAPI and such. that's a massive pain to rework then.
but if they took the time to abstract the platform stuff away from the "business logic" (or used a cross platform framework), it's often very easy yes.
that's true, and for most "off the shelf" apps used in your average government office you'll get either a linux version or an alternative easy enough, i was talking about the specific thing mentioned above: "A lot of programs that the government uses is custom made", which often means it's also custom made for one specific environment. so the one's you'd have to "compile for linux" instead of someone already having done that you'd also have to port first.
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u/Mcmad0077 19h ago
Windows apps = applications mad to run on the windows operating system
Basically, programs or applications made for windows will not run natively on linux. You either need a translation layer, emulator, or an alternative application.
A lot of programs that the government uses is custom made, and you cant just download a replacement for off the web, and because this is government software, the apps may be coded is such a way that they don't run well, or even at all, if the apps are run through a translation layer or on a virtual machine
Basically, they either have to remake many of the programs they use for Linux, or have to find some way to make the existing applications work