BC Observatoryunofficial, made by waldo
community postAL Developmentcommunity - not Microsoftreviewed - checked by Opus

BC on Linux: A Working Web Client, Faster Boots, Local Dev on Mac and Linux, and a Fast Lane in AL-Go

Running Business Central on Linux now supports a working web client for local development, achieving cold boot times of 79 seconds and test runs of 1,067 tests in 69 seconds. The project includes AL-Go integration with a Linux fast lane for pull requests and snapshot-based caching for even faster development cycles.

Open in Claudehttps-stefanmaron-com-posts-bc-linux-boot-time-and-al-go-fast-lane--3ddf109c8d.md

post Stefan Maron

Stefan Maron · 2026-08-10 · 1,307 words · about 6 min

"1,067 tests across 151 codeunits, all passing, in 69 seconds total."
Show the post hereRead on Stefan Maron

Key points

  • Web client works on Linux with field edits persisting and direct URL navigation, enabling true local development without Windows
  • Cold boot time reduced from 209 to 79 seconds by fixing cache lookup paths; persistent test connections run 1,067 tests in 69 seconds
  • BC 29 supported with proper .NET runtime selection; artifact downloads now consistent with parallel downloading and automatic retry
  • AL-Go fork offers linuxFastLane setting for PR builds on Linux without Windows runners; snapshot mode restores BC in as little as 16 seconds for local setups

Quotes

  • “1,067 tests across 151 codeunits, all passing, in 69 seconds total.” (Demonstrates real-world performance gains from persistent connections across test runs in production scenarios.)

Context

  • Features: web client on Linux, persistent test connections, snapshot mode, linuxFastLane, automatic caching, parallel artifact downloading, BC 29 support
  • Versions: BC 29

Source: Stefan Maron, community blog. Summary, key points and quotes are derived (CONTENT-NOTICE.md); read the original for the full text.