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New OS aims to provide (some) compatibility with macOS

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Re: New OS aims to provide (some) compatibility with macOS

#21
post #15
post #3

> A BSD-based OS project that aims to provide source and binary compatibility with macOS® and a similar user experience. I am curious - what is the motivation for this project? Is it to replicate macOS? - If yes, why? Is it to provide application compatibility on a non-macOS? If yes, why a full OS? Why not take the route like Wine or other such layers that make compatibility possible? Also, is there such a need for r…

I'm not affiliated with ravynOS, but I've been periodically following the project for a few years. The main page ( https://ravynos.com/ ) expresses the philosophy of ravynOS: "We love macOS, but we’re not a fan of the ever-closing hardware and ecosystem. So, we are creating ravynOS — an OS aimed to provide the finesse of macOS with the freedom of FreeBSD." rayvnOS seems to be designed for people who love macOS, parti…

So somehow running MacOS in 2025 on hot, loud, horrible battery life x86 based computers is a good thing?

Not to mention x86 Mac apps are not long for this world. I can’t think of a single application I would miss moving from Macs to Windows. It’s more about the hardware and the integration with the rest of my Apple devices.

Re: New OS aims to provide (some) compatibility with macOS

#22
post #3

> A BSD-based OS project that aims to provide source and binary compatibility with macOS® and a similar user experience. I am curious - what is the motivation for this project? Is it to replicate macOS? - If yes, why? Is it to provide application compatibility on a non-macOS? If yes, why a full OS? Why not take the route like Wine or other such layers that make compatibility possible? Also, is there such a need for r…

It would be great if it runs on mac too. macOS doesn't have much compatibility with itself.

Re: New OS aims to provide (some) compatibility with macOS

#24
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the same sentiment. I am forced to use a MacBook in my new job while waiting for them to procure a laptop that I can put Linux on. I can say that Linux with KDE Plasma desktop is in almost every way superior to Mac OS. Much better UX, configurability and core applications. And even little things are more polished and thought through compared to what a trillion dollar company was able to produce. It's really be…

“Better” is largely subjective. For some (including myself), a Windows-like paradigm like KDE uses is not desirable, and UI papercuts like the many that KDE has are highly visible.

I don't keep the record of every thing that I don't like about MacOS, but here's some:

- cannot keep natural scrolling for trackpad whilst having the expected scrolling behaviour for the mouse

- needs an external app for fractional display scaling

- screenshot tool is objectively inferior to that in Plasma, eg. not clear how to annotate a screenshot or copy it to clipboard

- Dolphin file browser is has cleaner and simpler UI, is more configurable and has a built-in terminal which is super handy.

...

Re: New OS aims to provide (some) compatibility with macOS

#25
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Better” is largely subjective. For some (including myself), a Windows-like paradigm like KDE uses is not desirable, and UI papercuts like the many that KDE has are highly visible.

I don't keep the record of every thing that I don't like about MacOS, but here's some: - cannot keep natural scrolling for trackpad whilst having the expected scrolling behaviour for the mouse - needs an external app for fractional display scaling - screenshot tool is objectively inferior to that in Plasma, eg. not clear how to annotate a screenshot or copy it to clipboard - Dolphin file browser is has cleaner and si…

Can’t comment on the others but I copy screenshots to the clipboard multiple times a day in macOS and have done for years. Very frequently I send them via Screen Sharing to another Mac and paste there, something I value hugely.

Re: New OS aims to provide (some) compatibility with macOS

#26
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Better” is largely subjective. For some (including myself), a Windows-like paradigm like KDE uses is not desirable, and UI papercuts like the many that KDE has are highly visible.

I don't keep the record of every thing that I don't like about MacOS, but here's some: - cannot keep natural scrolling for trackpad whilst having the expected scrolling behaviour for the mouse - needs an external app for fractional display scaling - screenshot tool is objectively inferior to that in Plasma, eg. not clear how to annotate a screenshot or copy it to clipboard - Dolphin file browser is has cleaner and si…

Dolphin is one of the things about KDE that bothers me, due to the way its windows are laid out and how they use margins/spacing. It just feels “wrong” in a way that even most other Linux file managers (including more full featured ones that still have a menubar) don’t.

Re: New OS aims to provide (some) compatibility with macOS

#27
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of these questions are answered here: https://ravynos.com/faq To summarize... There is a WINE-analogous project, called Darling: https://www.darlinghq.org/ The goal for ravynOS is to be analogous to ReactOS. Much like ReactOS and WINE, ravynOS and Darling share a lot of Cocoa code. For the problem of OpenStep implementations specifically, a bespoke software stack has the benefit of being able to put Mach messag…

> There is a WINE-analogous project, called Darling: https://www.darlinghq.org/ Missed opportunity to call it Cider.

There's already been a Cider; it used some Wine code to ease porting games to MacOS.

Re: New OS aims to provide (some) compatibility with macOS

#28
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not affiliated with ravynOS, but I've been periodically following the project for a few years. The main page ( https://ravynos.com/ ) expresses the philosophy of ravynOS: "We love macOS, but we’re not a fan of the ever-closing hardware and ecosystem. So, we are creating ravynOS — an OS aimed to provide the finesse of macOS with the freedom of FreeBSD." rayvnOS seems to be designed for people who love macOS, parti…

So somehow running MacOS in 2025 on hot, loud, horrible battery life x86 based computers is a good thing? Not to mention x86 Mac apps are not long for this world. I can’t think of a single application I would miss moving from Macs to Windows. It’s more about the hardware and the integration with the rest of my Apple devices.

Notes and Reminders are extremely good at what they do, and the synchronization with their iOS equivalents is flawless from what I can tell… and fat chance you get to uproot such a thing to a non-Apple OS.

Third party apps other than for media editing seem to be rare, I think Apple has gobbled or rug pulled much of its independent software vendor ecosystem.

Re: New OS aims to provide (some) compatibility with macOS

#29
It doesn't seem to be their focus, but this could be amazing for macOS build machines, and servers. There have been a number of changes in recent years focussed on improving the security of macOS when used as a Desktop OS. These work well for their intended purpose, but they have made macOS harder and harder to deploy headlessly, and use as a server.

I hope to see this become an open source OS that runs the full xcode command line suite, deploys easily to headless machines, and inherits FreeBSD's server hardware compatibility.

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