Backbone MRP is written in Java and draws its interface with SWT (Standard Windowing Toolkit) released by the Eclipse Foundation.
Java means one codebase and one data model rather than a Windows product with ports of it. Each installer carries its own Java runtime, so there is nothing to install first.
SWT calls straight through to the platform’s native widget toolkit. Windows, menus, tables, scrolling and keyboard navigation are the operating system’s own, not drawn imitations of them.
SWT is also the only windowing toolkit that fully supports the TableTree component — a table with columns and expandable rows. Backbone leverages it throughout the application for the most advanced productivity UI on the planet: a bill of material, a schedule tree or an order and its lines can be expanded, collapsed and edited in place, in one grid, without opening a second screen.
Most factories in the United States standardize on Windows, but often someone in the office wants to work on their Mac. They install the Mac build and work the same records, natively — no remote desktop session in between.
Linux costs nothing to license. Deploying floor clients on Linux removes the operating-system license from every one of those seats, and lets you put older or repurposed machines back to work without buying a license to do it.
It is one application either way, signed into the same company and working the same records.