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HelloSystem: A graphical OS built on FreeBSD

hellosystem.github.io

121–130 of 150 posts

Re: HelloSystem: A graphical OS built on FreeBSD

#121
post #14

I'm not a lawyer but if this gets any traction Apple's gonna get big mad about the branding, aren't they? They're basically swiping original Mac advertising campaign wholesale.

Yes, but HelloSystem will never go anywhere because it's BSD.

The canary in the coal mine will be the Elementary Linux distro's Pantheon desktop which even uses the Command symbol ⌘ yet claims "resemblance to any other graphical environment is purely coincidental".

There was some other Mac-copy Linux distro who Apple did send a C&D to for similar reasons but I can't remember the name.

Re: HelloSystem: A graphical OS built on FreeBSD

#122
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that very few macOS clone projects reach anything close to maturity, which means that paradigm is barely represented in FOSS desktops. Aside from GNOME (which is iPadOS, not macOS) and its prettier cousin Pantheon, It's just Win9X clones and tiling WMs as far as the eye can see. That might not seem like a big deal, but if the goal is to get as many people switched away from commercial operating systems…

Gnome 2 did a good job of taking all the best ideas from Windows and MacOS, then innovating on top. Sun even ran user studies to validate the UI as it was being built. Then the gnome 3 team intentionally sabotaged it all by intentionally arranging for gnome 3 apps to refuse to coexist with a gnome 2 install. Sigh.

My theory was that RedHat was concerned about software patents and/or law suits, so felt they had to significantly change Gnome 2, even if it would make people less productive.

Re: HelloSystem: A graphical OS built on FreeBSD

#123
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the main point of bsd or small linuxes over debians/redhats is that running htop fills just one third of the screen and I can understand what each program does right away. It fills me with a sense of control and tranquility that just isn't there in more complex setups.

That's a great point. Would you consider yourself a minimalist in general? I think I'm the opposite. I'm one of those people who installs every (secure and vetted) plugin/extension/app that makes my life/work "easier." I have a ridiculous amount of vscode/intellij/obsidian plugins that I use. I'm sure if I used emacs/vim it'd be the same. Just as an example that's super frowned upon, I install about 5-10 various pack…

Nothing wrong installing your favorite packages. Think the grandparent is talking about daemons running at startup.

Re: HelloSystem: A graphical OS built on FreeBSD

#124
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most linux desktop environments (notable exception of Gnome3 though it applies for Gnome2) seem to favour old school UX design which, incidentally, I happen to find nicer than “pretty”. I personally really like the Adwaita icon sets much more than windows and at least on-par with MacOS, though MacOS has the advantage of being rendered only on extremely high DPI screens. So most people only have that experienfe

For whatever it's worth, macOS/OS X has had very high resolution icons well before high DPI displays were commonly available. Even 10.0 which was released in 2001 supported 128x128 icons, which was 4x larger than what other popular desktops were capable of at the time and enabled far greater levels of detail, even if most users wouldn't be seeing that detail most of the time.

Thats actually true with Adwaita also. :D

Re: HelloSystem: A graphical OS built on FreeBSD

#125
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's any more stable, dependable or predictable than any similarly mature Linux distro. It's just a preference, perhaps with a sliver of contrarianism.

Can you name any production-quality / daily-driver linux distros that have used the same network config, init, logging, etc for the last 5 years, let alone the last 3 decades (like the BSDs have)? I never felt comfortable managing openbsd, but linux has repeatedly and gratuitously changed all the management tools, so now it’s easier for me to get around an openbsd box, despite using Linux daily, and openbsd maybe twi…

Fedora switched to Systemd in 2011. That's over 5 years?

Re: HelloSystem: A graphical OS built on FreeBSD

#126
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a great point. Would you consider yourself a minimalist in general? I think I'm the opposite. I'm one of those people who installs every (secure and vetted) plugin/extension/app that makes my life/work "easier." I have a ridiculous amount of vscode/intellij/obsidian plugins that I use. I'm sure if I used emacs/vim it'd be the same. Just as an example that's super frowned upon, I install about 5-10 various pack…

Nothing wrong installing your favorite packages. Think the grandparent is talking about daemons running at startup.

seconded

process list and mount table on oldschool unixes "fit's in head" conveying familiarity and trust while laying a foundation for security

Re: HelloSystem: A graphical OS built on FreeBSD

#127
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I run FreeBSD for my home storage server, have for almost a decade now. I've also used it for various other things here and there, but that's my major personal use. The best thing about it is that it is boring, completely predictable outside of hardware faults, and dependable. If you know how to competently manage it, which isn't hard, it is a rock. Also nice is that FreeBSD isn't involved in vendor tugs-of-war that…

I don't think it's any more stable, dependable or predictable than any similarly mature Linux distro. It's just a preference, perhaps with a sliver of contrarianism.

imho rhel is a close second, but bsd's being vastly less complex inherently means less assumptions and changes and more robustness

Re: HelloSystem: A graphical OS built on FreeBSD

#128
post #13
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Allegedly, one of the Acorn OS developers quit and went to work for NeXT in Silicon Valley... and right afterwards, the test in-development version of NeXTstep suddenly had this Acorn Risc OS-like floating icon bar! NeXT also implemented app directories, where all the contents of an app, its resources and libraries and so on, are in a folder with a special magic name... another idea nicked from Acorn. (Risc OS apps a…

somewhat related to the directories: https://www.macdisk.com/macforken.php

Not really... that's a Classic MacOS thing, not anything in NeXTstep, OpenStep or OS X, although OS X respects and preserves them.

Perhaps the closer correspondence is file metadata. For all that Risc OS is based on Acorn MOS, an OS that's as old or older than MS-DOS, it stores richer metadata: for instance, files have a Creator Type which is 3 hex digits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RISC_OS_filetypes

This can't be stored on DOS filesystems. So, just like Classic MacOS files with their 2 forks, to keep Risc OS files on DOS media without damaging them, they must be packed inside a Zip file or something like that -- and using a RiscOS (or MacOS) native Zip program that stores, and recreates, the metadata.

(Linux used to do something vaguely similar with the `umsdos` filesystem.)

DOS/Windows PC owners, who think the universe revolves around them, never could get the hang of this.

Re: HelloSystem: A graphical OS built on FreeBSD

#129
post #47

About 20 years ago I was an openbsd and freebsd admin, webhosting mostly. Then the rest of my maybe 16 year career was debian with some sprinkles of centos/rhel What would bring me to bsd today? Not in a negative way at all, I'm curious what people love about it. I barely remember much about it. I loved pf over iptables but I don't remember why. It has jailed containers which.. I think people still love? I'm not sure…

A lot have happened for these 15-20 years:

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36972903

... and that can give You another reason 'why':

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2020/09/07/quare-freebsd/

... but if you are happy where You are - then stay where You are.

I moved to FreeBSD because I was not happy on Linux.

Regards, vermaden

Re: HelloSystem: A graphical OS built on FreeBSD

#130

What are advantages of FreeBSD over Linux for example? I mostly used Linux with mostly joy and some frustration, but never FreeBSD. I do use Mac, but I don't think it can be translated, or can it?

As far as I'm aware, the largest users/vendor of BSD(-based) software are Apple, Sony/PlayStation, Cisco, and both Amazon and Netflix are reported to use BSD in their CDN infrastructure.

So they have a vested interest in the BSD-Ecosystem to stay alive and well, so as to continue to assure the existence of developers and beta-testers for the BSD system/userland they base their commercial offerings on. Personal choice, if you see that as a Pro or Con.

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