Compiling for a different platform with ease, is not just about cross-compiling, but the actual testing of the software after you have compiled. If you cross compile software on one operating system, what good is it when you have to fire up another machine or a bloated emulator like VMWare to test the software? Cross compiling alone is not enough. Because eventually, you will have to test and debug your linux application on a linux machine! So what's the point of cross compiling when you end up needing a linux box to test the app on anyway?

FakeLinux pieces together a number of software components into one nice package. It utlizes CoLinux, Samba, some Pascal code, remote TCP/IP servers and clients programmed in Pascal, and some shell scripts.

Example:

There are plenty of programmers out there who program in Pascal, Ada, C, or C++ on Windows, but have Linux servers. The solution is not to just switch to the Linux operating system or dual boot. The solution is to make ends meet, and get the best of both worlds. There are plenty of programmers who profit off of MS Windows desktop software, and have very little interest in Linux. But when it comes to web hosting and web programming, Linux is the winner. Making a web site based on a linux server is not a sin, even if you sell MS Windows software.

Yes, we are targetting users who use Windows as a development environment (most desktop software programmers). True GNU/Linux fans who use Gnu/Linux on the desktop and the server all around, probably aren't interested in FakeLinux - FakeLinux is useful for those who have Windows in their home or workplace.

If you have a development environment and text editors on MS Windows that you enjoy, and you are very used to compiling programs for desktop software development, why not do the same for server and website development? For example Delphi, FreePascal, and C++ users have been switching to languages like PHP, Perl, or Python due to the fact that they can upload from MS Windows, even if the server is linux. Others have been using ASP, and uploading to less powerful but still capable MS Windows servers. But this means they have to reinvent the wheel, utilizing none of their existing C++/C/Pascal/Ada code. This means they are using and supporting languages that have nothing or little to do with Pascal (and of course there is irony with C#).

PHP programmers can develop on a Windows box, but can they locally test their PHP script on a real linux situation? Some expensive tools have remote debugging which helps. With FakeLinux, you could test a PHP script on a linux apache server right from Microsoft Windows, without ever using remote debugging or a true linux box!

If you are a C/C++/Pascal programmer, and you can compile and utilize a lot of your existing C/C++/Pascal code snippets and units to run your website, why not? Are you just going to give up all your desktop software knowledge and jump over to PHP, Perl or ASP? Or are you going to stop the insanity and utilize your existing knowledge in C/C++/Pascal? That's where FAKELINUX comes in. And of course, if you see no need for FakeLinux, surely you don't use Microsoft Windows at all - that is the only case where FakeLinux is not useful.

FAKELINUX also encourages MS Windows users to gain extensive knowledge about Linux if they want to, without having to maintain a real Linux box. FAKELINUX can allow that user who knows about Linux, but is afraid to run it as a major operating system, to become comfortable with linux. FAKELINUX eases the use of Linux by packaging it up just the right way, but also lets the user fully control the system if he wants to.

VMWare, CygWin, Wine, and operating system emulators have been known as "cool but generally useless" toys or "marginally useful toys that end up wasting more time in the end". i.e. why not just use Linux in the first place. This is sometimes true in their simple form - same as if you gave a bag of sugar to someone and told them the wonderful things that bag of sugar could do. But by mixing that bag of sugar with a few key ingredients, and placing it in the right oven and end package, it becomes extremely useful. For people in a dilemma, such as Windows desktop software developers who need to produce Linux web programs, FAKELINUX packages up Linux, runs it on Windows, and puts it into an integrated, fully functional, extremely useful system.

Best yet, it's extremely fast, reliable, customizable, and almost unbelievable.

FakeLinux For LazarusRB:

An IDE plug-in that truly makes use of linux running inside windows, by allowing Pascal Programmers on MS Windows to develop linux web applications for economical and powerful Linux servers. Without giving up their favorite development environment and language, Delphi and Pascal programmers can now use MS Windows to make Linux web sites. This means Pascal programmers lives have been saved, not only because Linux hosting is cheaper and more powerful, but also because there is no need for a Pascal programmer to run over to ASP, PHP, Delphi Exe CGI-BIN's, or dual booting, and no need to give up the power and speed of their current language and IDE.

FakeLinux For Other languages and compilers:

FakeLinux setups that allow GCC, Kylix, Delphi, (C, C++, Ada, Pascal, and other languages) to build linux programs, are possible on MS Windows. The immediate efforts right now are going into web development and FreePascal, since it obviously has a long term future that allows us to develop linux web applications for economical and powerful Linux servers. Secondary efforts will go into the Delphi IDE as a fakelinux plug-in for it. Other efforts may go into compilers like GCC, but once again one must focus on the important issue at hand: Pascal web development and the internet.

FakeLinux For Text Editors:

Text505 will be an editor to contain a fakelinux plug-in as an option. Text505 is a powerful text editor with an existing plug-in architecture, so the FakeLinux plug-in from LazarusRB will drop right into Text505.

Syn Text Editor: Syn will be able to load the FakeLinux Plug-in too. Syn, an open source project, will be sharing ideas and code with Text505. Z505 will be donating source code and plug-ins to the Syn text editor project.