[HN Gopher] Hello system, a FreeBSD-based OS designed to resembl...
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Hello system, a FreeBSD-based OS designed to resemble Mac
 
Author : gautamcgoel
Score  : 208 points
Date   : 2021-02-10 17:22 UTC (5 hours ago)
 
web link (hellosystem.github.io)
w3m dump (hellosystem.github.io)
 
| CGamesPlay wrote:
| Sounds cool, although it still seems very early. Will keyboard
| shortcuts be primarily using Control or Super? As strange as it
| sounds, Control-driven keyboard shortcuts are one of the main
| things I think about every time I consider switching (and this is
| almost entirely because of the conflict of Control-C in the
| terminal).
 
  | [deleted]
 
  | 1996 wrote:
  | > Will keyboard shortcuts be primarily using Control or Super?
  | 
  | On linux, Super as the shortcut for window operation is gaining
  | ground, leaving Control and Alt for the other shortcuts.
  | 
  | Control is idea for the text shortcuts (emacs: Ctrl-A for
  | beginning, E for end etc), and Alt for the menus (ex: Alt-F for
  | files) even if there are a lot of crossovers (ex: Ctrl-F for
  | find)
  | 
  | > this is almost entirely because of the conflict of Control-C
  | in the terminal
  | 
  | I would suggest you remap intr to ^X : stty intr ^X : the X and
  | C keys are very close, so it becomes natural very quickly
  | 
  | I've seen quite a few people doing it, it inspired me to do the
  | same: it very quickly becomes natural, far more that Shift-
  | Ctrl-C
  | 
  | https://askubuntu.com/questions/1207183/how-to-map-keys-on-l...
 
  | coliveira wrote:
  | In the Mac, terminal apps use Control-C without any problems.
  | Only native Mac apps use the Command (Apple) key, so I see no
  | conflict between these two key combinations.
 
    | spockz wrote:
    | Command-C is copy basically everywhere in macOS. Even in
    | electron apps and qt apps. I haven't come across an app in
    | about 10 years which used Ctrl-c for copy.
 
      | sneak wrote:
      | https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/issues/7332
 
| Toutouxc wrote:
| This feels like one of the "we have X at home" memes. The UI is
| all over the place.
 
  | whalesalad wrote:
  | The closest I've ever seen is Elementary OS but even that isn't
  | quite right.
 
  | baliex wrote:
  | Couldn't agree more! It's trying so hard to look like macOS but
  | it somehow hasn't escaped a Linux look and feel. One example is
  | the padding between the `Alt+Space` text and its surrounding
  | pseudo-Spotlight search box. Either the box is too small or the
  | text is too big but it just doesn't look polished.
 
  | xtracto wrote:
  | The problem with all these Linux/BSD attempts at mimicking the
  | Mac is that due to the nature of the open source components,
  | they are mostly able to mimic the "look" but never the feel.
  | 
  | The one thing that makes OSX different even from Windows is the
  | way it "feels" when you are using it. And the simple things you
  | can achieve in a very simple and intuitive matter.
  | 
  | I just stumbled upon an example some days ago, when I needed to
  | add a screenshot image to a PDF. It was surprisingly easy in
  | the Mac: Double click the PDF to open it in preview, double
  | click the image to open it in preview and then drag the file
  | icon of the image into the pages view of the PDF. And the image
  | is inserted as a page in the PDF without any issues.
  | 
  | To do that on Windows or Linux (I use Mint in my PC) I think
  | I'll have to print the Image as a PDF and then use some other
  | software to "stitch" the two files together.
  | 
  | And like that there are a lot of other UX small things that
  | make for a more pleasant experience in the Mac, particularly
  | for end users.
 
    | 29athrowaway wrote:
    | You can mimic the macOS feel in Linux by injecting a 30 ms
    | delay in every action and changing the cursor to a beach
    | ball.
 
    | toast0 wrote:
    | > double click the image to open it in preview and then drag
    | the file icon of the image into the pages view of the PDF
    | 
    | What I never understood as someone with a mac only to blend
    | in at work, is why in the world is it called Preview when
    | it's actually an editor?
 
    | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
    | > And like that there are a lot of other UX small things that
    | make for a more pleasant experience in the Mac, particularly
    | for end users.
    | 
    | Completely disagree. Yesterday I had to figure out how to
    | display hidden files in finder. I had to google it //
    | apparently there is some hidden key sequence of command
    | option control alt hell that toggles it. It is not exposed in
    | menus anywhere and there shortcut it not all obvious. So next
    | week I'll be googling it again.
    | 
    | Contrast that with most linux UIs and even Windows. Context-
    | menus display all possible options (generally)... nothing is
    | hidden from the user.
    | 
    | Most of my gripes about MacOS have to do with the finder and
    | context menus. They suck.
    | 
    | This is one example of many.
 
      | oneeyedpigeon wrote:
      | As another comment just made points out, this is not
      | something the vast majority of Mac users will, or should,
      | be doing. For the rest of us, we're likely to be doing it
      | often enough to remember the shortcut -- it's second nature
      | to me now.
      | 
      | The big problem is discoverability, as you imply.
      | 
      | > all possible options ... nothing is hidden from the user
      | 
      | This is the key bit. Showing all possible options would go
      | utterly against the mac ethos.
 
      | Klonoar wrote:
      | You can enable it system-wide with a defaults setting. Most
      | devs I know do.
      | 
      | Most end-users don't know what a hidden file with a `.` is,
      | would never create one, and don't particularly care for
      | that level of clutter in a directory.
 
      | zepto wrote:
      | "I had to figure out how to display hidden files in
      | finder."
      | 
      | Displaying hidden files is not generally _an end user
      | feature_.
 
        | fnord123 wrote:
        | As a user I would like to be able to attach my .vimrc,
        | .bashrc, etc to emails to colleagues so they can see what
        | I have in my settings.
 
        | Someone wrote:
        | In general, end users don't even _have_ a .vimrc,
        | .bashrc, etc. If you even know these things exist, you're
        | an exception.
 
    | mortenjorck wrote:
    | My sense is that theming like this is generally not aimed at
    | people who would use a Mac in the first place, but rather BSD
    | users who want something that looks more pleasant than their
    | default window manager.
    | 
    | Creating a coherent visual language from scratch is a huge
    | undertaking, and requires a certain skill set. Mimicking an
    | existing design system is much more straightforward, even if
    | the results are uneven.
 
      | cmroanirgo wrote:
      | From the page itself, it clearly aims at people migrating
      | from a mac:
      | 
      | > _It is intended as a system for "mere mortals", welcoming
      | to switchers from the Mac._
 
    | mhh__ wrote:
    | Well Windows doesn't attempt to edit PDFs, so what do you
    | expect? If for some reason I was using word it's 2 clicks, so
    | I find that extremely pointless as a test.
 
      | zepto wrote:
      | > what do you expect?
      | 
      | I think a lot of users expect to be able to do minor
      | manipulations on PDFs.
 
    | aduitsis wrote:
    | My favourite small detail on the Mac, is how the clipboard
    | interacts with the filesystem. You can select some text, drag
    | it into the Desktop and it will become a .Clipping. Now, if
    | you drag and drop that clipping into a text field (e.g.
    | textedit), it will be as if it was pasted.
 
      | heavyset_go wrote:
      | KDE's Plasma Desktop allows you to do this. You can drag
      | text from any app to the desktop, and it will turn it into
      | a Note.
      | 
      | You can right-click and paste, or Ctrl+V, on the desktop or
      | the file manager, too, and it will save your clipboard
      | contents as a file for you.
      | 
      | Same thing works for images, videos etc.
 
      | Wowfunhappy wrote:
      | This is also why Mac apps built using frameworks other than
      | Cocoa (or Carbon) never feel quite right!
      | 
      | Sure, you may have recreated the copy and paste menu so it
      | looks and feels identical. But did you remember to handle
      | .clipping files? What about File > New From Clipboard? What
      | about the system-wide custom keyboard shortcuts? Oh, and
      | don't forget to make it all behave properly with Voiceover!
 
        | kridsdale1 wrote:
        | This is why it sucks so much that many important "apps"
        | are electron shells.
 
      | quietbritishjim wrote:
      | Windows had a very similar idea to that, called "shell
      | scraps" [1]. The feature was removed because basically
      | nobody ever used it (and it was a vector for viruses) [2].
      | 
      | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_Scrap_Object_File
      | 
      | [2] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-
      | versions/technet-m...
 
      | anthk wrote:
      | KDE used to work like that too.
 
        | heavyset_go wrote:
        | It still does.
 
      | hamburglar wrote:
      | This is certainly true for data types that the system knows
      | how to serialize and deserialize, but (at least back when
      | clippings were introduced) for others, the app that owns
      | the clipboard data must provide the hook for the
      | serialization and deserialization. Back in my first
      | programming job, we were about to ship a shrink-wrapped
      | software product that I will not name but you've almost
      | certainly used, and we discovered that we "needed" to
      | support clippings or else (I can't remember if this was
      | some Apple compatibility rule or some marketing person's
      | rule). We didn't have much time, and we also didn't have
      | serialization code for this very complicated data structure
      | that was on the clipboard, and my manager told me to just
      | implement it by sticking THE POINTER in the clipping. I
      | objected and was overruled. I did it, it shipped that way,
      | and I will always be ashamed. You could only use a clipping
      | in the same process that created it. I had to add code on
      | the deserialize that checked to see if the pointer was
      | valid. It still makes me sick to think about.
 
        | marmaduke wrote:
        | That's the practical approach .. and you are lucky to
        | have a manager who is technical enough to make
        | suggestions like that
 
        | hamburglar wrote:
        | There is nothing practical about writing a pointer value
        | to a file. This was a quick hack that made the feature
        | _appear_ to work rather than actually work. It 's really
        | bad engineering.
 
      | toomanyducks wrote:
      | Sort of reminds me of Plan 9, with the ability to treat
      | text as executable, where execution can include opening a
      | file in a designated application. I haven't used either OS
      | for more than a cumulative 10 minutes, but this was
      | definitely my favorite part of Plan 9.
 
        | ithkuil wrote:
        | You can play with a user space port called plan9port
        | (https://9fans.github.io/plan9port/) where you can run
        | the "plumber" executable, edit your rule file and then
        | just invoke the plumb command with some text and context
        | and have it do things. It also comes with the acme editor
        | and other tools.
        | 
        | This way you can have some of the fun of plan9 but keep
        | your modern amenities such as wifi, a browser and
        | whatnot.
 
        | MisterTea wrote:
        | Text isn't executable in plan 9 but it plays a major role
        | in the design of how you interact with the system.
        | 
        | The functionality you describe sounds like a mixture of
        | Acme(1) text editor and the plumber(4) file server.
        | 
        | Acme editor allows you to exec highlighted text so long
        | as the highlighted portion is a valid command string. For
        | example: if you wanted the date printed in the Acme
        | window from date(1) all you do is type  I just stumbled upon an example some days ago, when I
    | needed to add a screenshot image to a PDF. It was
    | surprisingly easy in the Mac: Double click the PDF to open it
    | in preview, double click the image to open it in preview and
    | then drag the file icon of the image into the pages view of
    | the PDF. And the image is inserted as a page in the PDF
    | without any issues.
    | 
    | That is a great use case!
    | 
    | And screenshots on mac are, IMHO, hard to use.
    | 
    | The screenshot UI is frustrating, where to save to is under
    | options, you cannot preview your screenshot, you cannot
    | annotate the screenshot (something I do all the time on
    | Windows), and having to choose between saving to file or
    | clipboard is annoying.
    | 
    | I wanted to record video, which the Screenshot app can do! I
    | know that because I googled for it, saw it could do it, and
    | then spent a good 4-5 minutes trying to figure out HOW to do
    | it before I realized the tiny grey scale circle overlaid on a
    | couple of the toolbar icons meant "record".
    | 
    | (Red circles mean record, grey circles don't have much
    | meaning, but hey, need to keep that UI minimal, can't let
    | usability or actual meaning get in the way!)
    | 
    | The Windows Snipping Tool (RIP) is IMHO the best paradigm for
    | doing screenshots.
 
      | notafraudster wrote:
      | You are a few versions out of date here -- Mac screenshots
      | now show a preview by default and clicking on the preview
      | opens it for annotation. This is true as of 2018 (Mojave).
 
        | com2kid wrote:
        | > Mac screenshots now show a preview by default
        | 
        | Ah, I have to select "preview". Thanks! That is nice to
        | know.
        | 
        | Now, pardon me, as the highlight tool isn't working,
        | everything is a rectangular selection no matter what I
        | do.
        | 
        | Right click, "text and icons". Thank goodness for
        | that[1], because apparently I have to first click what I
        | thought was a stylized 'A' (or a wishbone), then a
        | separate toolbar appears, that, ironically, doesn't have
        | a way to highlight things. Go figure.
        | 
        | It does appear to be far more powerful than the snipping
        | tool.
        | 
        | I'll still complain about the greyscale record button.
        | 
        | [1] With just icons I probably would have, quite
        | literally, never clicked the markup button and just
        | assumed the preview tool couldn't do any annotations.
        | Holy cow that is a bad icon.
        | 
        | Edit: OIC, the markup button only does something when
        | viewing PDFs, but the button pretends it does something
        | (is clickable, changes state) when viewing image files.
        | That is... distinctly not good UX.
 
      | spijdar wrote:
      | For what it's worth, the much maligned touch bar has good
      | integration with the screenshot functionality, and you can
      | adjust options through that interface while in "screenshot
      | mode". Video recording is also easy there.
      | 
      | I'm also pretty sure recent versions of MacOS have
      | annotation capabilities unless you directly copy to
      | clipboard. Not sure though, don't have a mac anymore.
 
      | woodruffw wrote:
      | > The screenshot UI is frustrating, where to save to is
      | under options, you cannot preview your screenshot, you
      | cannot annotate the screenshot (something I do all the time
      | on Windows), and having to choose between saving to file or
      | clipboard is annoying.
      | 
      | I agree with all of this, but for what it's worth: Command-
      | shift-{3,4,5} (and maybe others?) all bring up a rapid
      | screenshot cursor. That action integrates with the little
      | "smart" preview window that recent macOS releases have, so
      | you can just click the little floating window that appears
      | on the bottom right of your screen to see the capture
      | you've just taken.
 
        | reaperducer wrote:
        | _Command-shift-{3,4,5} (and maybe others?)_
        | 
        | Command-Shift-6 takes a screenshot of your touchbar.
        | 
        | Surprisingly useful if you have your touchbar customized
        | to output some kind of diagnostic data or other thing
        | that you're monitoring.
 
        | indigodaddy wrote:
        | And don't forget ctrl-cmd-shift-3/4/5 to get it straight
        | to your buffer
 
      | machello13 wrote:
      | > (Red circles mean record, grey circles don't have much
      | meaning, but hey, need to keep that UI minimal, can't let
      | usability or actual meaning get in the way!)
      | 
      | Each button in the screenshot toolbar shows a tooltip when
      | you hover over -- not even after a couple seconds, but
      | immediately. The one you're talking about is labeled
      | "Record Entire Screen."
 
        | com2kid wrote:
        | > Each button in the screenshot toolbar shows a tooltip
        | when you hover over -- not even after a couple seconds,
        | but immediately. The one you're talking about is labeled
        | "Record Entire Screen."
        | 
        | You are right, that is how I figured it out.
        | 
        | By giving up on using visual queues, and hovering over
        | each button individually to see if there were any
        | surprises.
        | 
        | If the circle had literally just been red I would've
        | guessed it immediately.
        | 
        | To be fair Apple's page for this does show the button
        | with the circle over it, I somehow managed to miss the
        | circle despite reading the page twice.
        | 
        | I do have a bias against icons in general, I prefer text
        | labels on all my icons but apparently that is way too
        | 90s. :/
        | 
        | (The dock is largely useless to me, I use Contexts to
        | make MacOS usable, let's me switch apps by typing in the
        | app's name, I have an equivalent program on Windows)
 
  | agloeregrets wrote:
  | It reminds me aggressively of OSX, no I don't mean macOS, I
  | mean OSX 10.2.
 
| [deleted]
 
| macksd wrote:
| This is exciting - I hope it gets momentum. I used to use BSD on
| my laptop and although it was a bit less convenient than Linux in
| terms of hardware support, etc. I really loved the philosophy.
| Some of the desktop-oriented distributions died out and have been
| replaced by others, so it's not an ecosystem I feel comfortable
| really investing my time in.
| 
| But my wife loves the look and feel of Mac OS, and has just grown
| frustrated with a few things lately that are obviously just
| restricting users to squeeze them to more expensive products or
| locking them in to Apple's ecosystem. She's rarely cared much
| about my FOSS hobby before but something like this would actually
| appeal to her, I think.
 
  | gosukiwi wrote:
  | What I love about FreeBSD is the documentation. I was able to
  | skim through it and get a good understanding of how everything
  | fits together, and how I can change it.
  | 
  | I'd love it if this project gains some momentum, it would be
  | great to have an alternative to Ubuntu/Elementary OS.
  | 
  | In particular it would be nice to have an alternative for macOS
  | users. Jumping to Linux from other OSes can be tough at first.
  | 
  | > restricting users to squeeze them to more expensive products
  | or locking them in to Apple's ecosystem.
  | 
  | Yeah also this. I can't use my old MacBook 2005 anymore because
  | the software I need to use won't run on older versions of
  | MacOS, and I just can't install newer versions of MacOS without
  | some kind of hack, which leaves the computer half-usable :(
 
  | ksec wrote:
  | >But my wife loves the look and feel of Mac OS, and has just
  | grown frustrated with a few things lately that are obviously
  | just restricting users to squeeze them to more expensive
  | products or locking them in to Apple's ecosystem.
  | 
  | So glad this is catching on. Although I was surprised this
  | coming from Mac and not iPhone. What is it with Mac that caused
  | the frustration?
  | 
  | On iPhone, it is clear everything is about pushing for services
  | revenue.
 
    | Koshkin wrote:
    | Wife loves her iPhone and hates the Mac. Sounds familiar...
 
    | macksd wrote:
    | I haven't looked into it too deeply, but she has one of the
    | less expensive netbook-type models and it appears to raise
    | errors quite frequently because she should buy more iCloud
    | space even though she has space on the local disk.
    | 
    | She's also found it increasingly hard to find config settings
    | the last few years.
 
  | reachtarunhere wrote:
  | If you are open to Linux you might find this interesting
  | https://elementary.io/
 
    | KeyBoardG wrote:
    | This. I wonder how much work it would take to get the
    | Pantheon desktop running on FreeBSD if they wanted that as
    | the base.
 
    | neilalexander wrote:
    | If there was a way to have the Pantheon desktop experience of
    | elementaryOS on BSD or Illumos without having to build it
    | myself, I'd be there in a heartbeat.
 
  | whynotminot wrote:
  | Just curious, what do you feel is squeezing you to a more
  | expensive product lately?
  | 
  | I still use a 2012 Mac mini from time to time. It recently
  | stopped getting the latest OS upgrades, but getting 8ish years
  | out of a product before being gently pushed to upgrade doesn't
  | strike me as all that unreasonable or money-grabbing.
 
    | spockz wrote:
    | Also imho the latest M1 air is excellent value for money.
    | Cheap, great screen. And macOS.
 
      | mekkkkkk wrote:
      | Cheap is definitely arguable.
 
        | whynotminot wrote:
        | I might agree that "cheap" is the wrong word, but "value"
        | is definitely the right one. There's nothing at its price
        | point that provides a similar value prop.
 
        | spockz wrote:
        | Okay it isn't cheap to buy, however TCO for a machine th
        | at will probably you serve well for 8 years for around
        | EUR1000 sounds good to me. It is also their cheapest
        | laptop which is why I used the word cheap.
 
| rangoon626 wrote:
| I really appreciate seeing someone creating their own interface
| instead of re-skinning the popular shells. If the devs out there
| working on this see this thread, great work!
 
| mikeiz404 wrote:
| Video walkthrough: https://youtu.be/PlPTVbhrKYM
 
| michaelpb wrote:
| Sincere question: Why FreeBSD?
| 
| I'm not against the choice, and I can imagine some valid reasons
| to choose it, but in the helloSystem docs I read so far I only
| found some common criticisms of desktop Linux UI (bloated,
| unfriendly, disorganized etc). Whether true or not, I really
| don't see how the kernel choice impacts the graphical experience
| they are imitating. This seems more of a criticism of distros,
| poorly followed or non-existent HIG for DEs, or even just the
| general ad-hoc nature of FOSS projects. That's why I don't see
| how basing a new free software project on FreeBSD would solve any
| of that -- it seems completely orthogonal.
| 
| I mean, either way it seems they are basing it on KDE, which they
| could have also built on top of a Linux kernel:
| https://hellosystem.github.io/docs/developer/architecture.ht...
| 
| Also, I get a lot of their criticisms of existing DEs, but it
| seems they are tossing a lot of work out without a viable
| replacement with buy-in, e.g. "XDG specifications are considered
| overly complex but insufficient and should be avoided, but may be
| acceptable as legacy technology for compatibility reasons".
| There's plenty of valid criticism of XDG, but until there is any
| support behind helloSystem, it reminds me a bit of this classic
| xkcd: https://xkcd.com/927/
| 
| All in all I'm actually excited about the project, since
| regardless of the kernel, I'm sure the DE they are developing
| will get ports elsewhere (e.g. to mature desktop Linuxes and
| BSDs), and any effort that helps macOS users jump to FOSS-world
| is also super appreciated!
 
  | masukomi wrote:
  | because macOS is BSD based not Linux Based seems a damn good
  | reason to make one that's going to feel similar to macOS,
  | especially to the type of geeks who would switch to a *nix
  | clone.
  | 
  | You'll have the same command line libraries built in instead of
  | the GNU ones. Now, I'm not saying i _want_ the BSD tools
  | instead of the GNU ones, but it makes a LOT of sense if you're
  | trying to keep the same behavior.
 
    | michaelpb wrote:
    | See, preferring BSD userland would be a rationale I would at
    | least understand, but I didn't find that motivation in the
    | documentation -- at least what I read of it. Instead I just
    | saw a lot of criticisms of user experience and development
    | experience of completely unrelated graphical userland
    | software that are commonly used on both desktop BSD and
    | desktop Linux.
 
  | dialamac wrote:
  | My guess, probably because they're idiots.
  | 
  | " A lightweight, standard publish/subscribe mechanism should be
  | identified; possibly something like MQTT (which would have the
  | added benefit of allowing for network-wide communication). In
  | the meantime, the use of D-Bus as a legacy technology may be
  | acceptable (even though it is considered obscure, convoluted,
  | and closely linked with various other Red Hat technologies."
  | 
  | This sort of sums it up right there. I mean I think dbus is a
  | trash fire, but not because it is tied to RedHat, and
  | "something something" hand wavy MQTT isn't a real solution.
  | 
  | This seems to be more of a project driven by Linux hate then
  | actual design principals. The former is not so much a problem
  | as the latter
 
| Gys wrote:
| If you want this, I recommend to also look at
| https://elementary.io/ (to me that looks more moderm)
 
  | mmastrac wrote:
  | Elementary looks like a great attempt at a clean desktop. Lots
  | of attention to detail (although odd that they have a gif
  | searching applications on the front page with such a mis-
  | centered text insertion mark!).
  | 
  | I really wish that Gnome would go all-in on the single menu bar
  | approach of OSX. I know it's gone back and forth over the years
  | and broken from time-to-time but it really is a much better way
  | to do things versus the windows menu-per-window approach. IMO
  | obviously, but I've used OSX for a decade and Windows/DOS for
  | 20 years before that and top menus have always just been a
  | better experience.
 
    | themacguffinman wrote:
    | The menu bar is one of the most frustrating parts of macOS
    | for me. It kills Fitts' law when navigating browser tabs,
    | which is what I'm trying to do up there 90% of the time.
 
  | vermaden wrote:
  | No icons on the desktop at elementary.
 
  | bitigchi wrote:
  | Elementary only mimics the appearance, it's still Linux (and
  | all its bloat and unfriendliness underneath). Hello looks like
  | it's trying to make it usable as the Mac too.
 
  | trenchgun wrote:
  | That is based on Linux, not FreeBSD.
 
| 1_player wrote:
| Brought to you by the creator of AppImage.
| 
| https://medium.com/@probonopd/hello-lets-make-a-freebsd-for-...
 
  | diggernet wrote:
  | And irdb.
  | 
  | http://www.irdb.tk/
 
    | trenchgun wrote:
    | Yes.
    | 
    | This project has a much higher probability for success than
    | baseline.
 
| krylon wrote:
| > System Requirements: VGA capable of 1024x768 screen resolution
| 
| I do not mean to be snarky, but are there actual displays that
| have a lower resolution these days? I mean, even my phone - which
| is not high-end at all, at least by central European standards -
| has 1280x720. I _do_ have an Asus EeePC netbook with a 1024x600
| display, but that is kind of a special case (also, it is 12 years
| old).
 
  | xu_ituairo wrote:
  | I read it as just stating the minimum hardware needed to
  | successfully run this.
  | 
  | I don't imagine them making it artificially higher, just
  | because, would serve a purpose.
 
    | krylon wrote:
    | Good point.
 
    | chungus_khan wrote:
    | A lot of these straight up just exist so the creator has a
    | sign to tap (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRYYGcWV4AAF2E4.jpg)
    | when people try to file bug reports for unsupported oddball
    | configurations.
 
  | xtracto wrote:
  | > I do have an Asus EeePC netbook with a 1024x600 display, but
  | that is kind of a special case
  | 
  | Hehe, I have one of those which I bought in Germany also like
  | 12 years ago. They were all the rage at that time and the darn
  | thing is still kicking ass. It is good for the odd Windows
  | stuff that I have to do, and also serves as the CPU of my
  | arcade build.
 
  | WesolyKubeczek wrote:
  | A plenty of 800x450 screens out there for the ilk of Raspberry
  | Pi.
 
  | heavyset_go wrote:
  | If you're running this is a virtual machine like it appears
  | that the OS developer is, chances are that you'll be using a
  | smaller resolution than what your screen can handle.
 
| pjmlp wrote:
| Resemble is the keyword, without any of the frameworks that make
| macOS what it is.
 
| the-dude wrote:
| For a graphical system, screenshots are hard to find.
 
  | duckerude wrote:
  | I found one:
  | https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helloSystem/hello/master/s...
 
  | rvz wrote:
  | Took me a second to find _at least_ one screenshot:
  | https://hellosystem.github.io/docs/user/getting-started.html
  | 
  | But you're actually right though. I think that the screenshots
  | are best presented on the front-page.
 
    | the-dude wrote:
    | I am a bit ashamed I missed that one. Thanks for the pointer.
 
      | bee_rider wrote:
      | It was the only screenshot I could find, it is a bit
      | minimal, and it requires scrolling down the page (which
      | seems like a lazy complaint, but c'mon, the graphics are
      | the whole point of this project, put it front-and-center!)
      | 
      | Your shame is rejected, they are the ones who messed up.
 
  | gautamcgoel wrote:
  | Plenty of screenshots here:
  | 
  | https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2021/02/hel...
 
    | the-dude wrote:
    | Are you involved in the project? Isn't this a massive
    | copyright infringement on Apple's design?
 
      | rangoon626 wrote:
      | Have a look at Big Sur, then check out Deepin, then have a
      | look again at Big Sur.
 
        | Macha wrote:
        | Or if you claim that Deepin is too obscure to have
        | influenced OS X, Gnome 3.
 
        | machello13 wrote:
        | I mean this in the nicest way, but are you seriously
        | suggesting Apple is looking to the open-source Linux
        | community for UI design ideas? Isn't it much more likely
        | the trend is just industry-wide, and Apple is part of it
        | as much as Gnome is? Apple's own UI has been moving in
        | that direction for years anyway before Big Sur.
 
        | Macha wrote:
        | Are you seriously suggesting that the open source
        | community has not a single idea that is worth considering
        | by Apple?
        | 
        | Anyway, here is gnome 3:
        | 
        | https://external-
        | content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F...
        | 
        | here is big sur:
        | 
        | https://cdn.osxdaily.com/wp-
        | content/uploads/2020/06/macos-bi...
        | 
        | Let's take a look at one of the most shown off redesigned
        | apps
        | 
        | Here is Mail.app (sierra to catalina):
        | 
        | https://external-
        | content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F...
        | 
        | Here is Mail.app (Big Sur):
        | 
        | https://i1.wp.com/morrick.me/wp-
        | content/uploads/2020/08/defa...
        | 
        | Here is Gnome's mail app (predates big sur by several
        | years, even in this incarnation):
        | 
        | https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Geary?action=AttachFile&do=ge
        | t&t...
        | 
        | So, Gnome's design and Apple's didn't exist in a vacuum.
        | I'm not saying Apple told someone to go rip off Gnome 3,
        | or that Gnome 3 is just better than Big Sur in some way.
        | But I think it's altogether too harsh to deny it had any
        | influence when we look at the changes from Catalina to
        | Big Sur.
 
        | pjmlp wrote:
        | Graphics are cute, yet when one digs deeper there are no
        | proper frameworks that provide the Feel, only the Look.
 
        | fnord123 wrote:
        | This is true. Macos's window management is still a
        | dumpster fire (Cmd-tab to go to the last window raises
        | all windows in that application. And switching to the
        | previous application across two monitors will focus on
        | the application windows in the monitor of the most
        | recently focused window - not the last window).
 
        | chipotle_coyote wrote:
        | To me, Big Sur's design is very clearly taking its
        | aesthetics -- for better or worse (maybe better _and_
        | worse) -- from iOS: minimizing  "chrome" as much as
        | possible to the point of making title bars vanish when
        | it's deemed feasible, reducing buttons to flat single-
        | color icons, and so on. Your screenshots of GNOME 3 look
        | more like Catalina than Big Sur to me, honestly; the
        | buttons still look like, well, buttons; the title/toolbar
        | goes all the way across (unlike Big Sur but like
        | Catalina), the buttons are grouped (unlike Big Sur but
        | like Catalina), etc.
        | 
        | I don't think anyone would say design exists in a vacuum,
        | nor that the open source community has no ideas that
        | Apple or other companies would consider -- I mean, look
        | at CUPS and KHTML! But open source has, well, not
        | historically been great with its desktop UX design. The
        | best free software interfaces that I see tend to take
        | pretty direct cues from (hopefully well-designed!)
        | commercial counterparts; more often than not deviations
        | from those established norms make things worse rather
        | than better.
 
        | pwdisswordfish6 wrote:
        | General trends? Yes, of course. But at Jobs's very last
        | WWDC event, they demoed a lot of new Mac developments for
        | Lion that _specifically_ (not generally) mirrored some of
        | the features going into Gnome Shell after (very public)
        | design iteration. At the time, I came away saying that it
        | was basically  "Gnome Shell, rotated 90 degrees".
        | 
        | Not sure what "open-source Linux community" means to you,
        | besides a phrase that can be used to denigrate and
        | diminish the work of people who have skill and vision by
        | associating them with unrelated projects that lack
        | polish.
        | 
        | You're also doing a pretty annoying thing where, rather
        | than engaging with someone on the topic of discussion,
        | you instead appeal to the audience's intuition and
        | essentially suggest that the conversation need not happen
        | because the other side can be dismissed outright due to
        | Common Sense things that everyone Knows. (It's a great
        | tactic when your goal is to prevent anyone from taking
        | something seriously because serious examination would
        | necessarily lead to confronting something uncomfortable.)
 
      | Cieplak wrote:
      | > _Isn 't this a massive copyright infringement on Apple's
      | design?_
      | 
      | I'm not a lawyer but I think Xerox had the same question
      | back in '89 [1]. Given Apple's luck in pursuing
      | infringement claims against Microsoft [2], I doubt a
      | copyright suit would be fruitful in this case.
      | 
      | [1] https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/15/business/company-
      | news-xer...
      | 
      | [2] https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/blog/1988-apple-sues-
      | micros...
 
      | indigodaddy wrote:
      | The look of the text in the top left in this screenshot
      | where they are trying to mimic an "about this mac" sort of
      | deal, frankly leaves a lot to be desired. It just looks
      | very unattractive to me.
      | 
      | https://149366088.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-
      | content/uploads/202...
 
      | mistrial9 wrote:
      | I am using ctl-c ctl-v ctl-x and ctl-z "undo" right now, in
      | 2021. These keyboard shortcuts and their menu-driven
      | actions were definitely claimed as protected interface by
      | Apple long ago. Apple's claims to user-interface control
      | are wearing thin after close to four decades, no?
 
| protomyth wrote:
| Anyone know the license of the code? I would assume BSD, but that
| assumption hasn't been true of some other projects.
 
  | tyingq wrote:
  | There's a license file in the ISO repo, which I assume would
  | cover most or all of the project. 3-Clause BSD:
  | https://github.com/helloSystem/ISO/blob/experimental/LICENSE
 
| aminozuur wrote:
| That's a very ugly website for something that's "designed to
| resemble Mac"
 
  | 1-6 wrote:
  | FreeBSD has to have SOME influence!
 
| zerof1l wrote:
| It may be appealing enough for a user to try it, but I foresee
| disappointment. Mac OS is not only about the UI but also about
| all the software for it. How easy it is to install and use it out
| of the box. Drivers are never an issue. It is very unlikely that
| the average user will have to run commands in bash or edit some
| config files in a text editor.
| 
| It would be cool if some Linux variant could resemble Mac in this
| way.
 
  | machiaweliczny wrote:
  | Isn't system76 and PopOS like that?
 
    | pwdisswordfish6 wrote:
    | No, have you used it? The Gnome customizations that go into
    | Pop_OS! are more noticeably influenced by Windows-isms than
    | they resemble Mac-like design (unfortunately -- the Windows
    | influence leads to poorer outcomes that only really make
    | sense when you realize that it's because it matches something
    | in Windows, and not because there's any good from-first-
    | principles rationale for those things).
 
      | mst wrote:
      | I think they meant "like that" wrt drivers not being an
      | issue and not having to drop out of the GUI.
 
  | mekkkkkk wrote:
  | > Drivers are never an issue.
  | 
  | If you talk about system drivers it's not really fair. Having
  | control of all system components makes driver support a joke
  | compared to handling the constant avalanche for PCs. Try
  | installing a hackintosh and you have a good chance of
  | immediately running into Linuxesque driver issues.
  | 
  | If you talk about peripherals I've had plenty of issues on
  | macOS.
 
| zeckalpha wrote:
| Any plans to partner with prior attempts like
| Darling/GNUStep/Window Maker/Etoile?
 
| bitigchi wrote:
| As a Mac user, worth noting that this project tries to make it
| not just look like a Mac but feel like a Mac too. Kudos for this
| reason!
 
| rbanffy wrote:
| If someone wants to mimic the Mac, I'd suggest they start by
| making it easy to port apps from macOS. Worst case scenario, you
| run binaries from macOS directly on your OS.
| 
| Then it starts making sense to build your own.
 
  | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
  | If the goal is looking and acting like a mac, implementing the
  | entire set of application-facing OS interfaces is _far_ more
  | expensive than just theming and UX work.
  | 
  | That said, this has been attempted and supposedly works for
  | simple apps (mostly excluding GUI apps) -
  | https://www.darlinghq.org/
 
    | rbanffy wrote:
    | Theming can't go far without the plumbing that underpin Mac
    | applications. You can mimic the look perfectly and it'll
    | still feel odd. You can't run xterm and expect Mac users to
    | think it's how it's supposed to be. You won't get far unless
    | you also emulate the behavior with mixed high-dpi and normal
    | screens and making apps look the same across screen borders.
 
  | heavyset_go wrote:
  | This is a big undertaking. Microsoft was able to do this for
  | UWP and iOS[1], but they're a billion dollar company with the
  | man power to accomplish something like that.
  | 
  | [1] https://github.com/microsoft/WinObjC
 
| shrubble wrote:
| There is also NEXTSPACE, which is focused on a distribution of
| files that implement a full NeXTSTEP environment for Linux.
| 
| Installs on top of a minimal install of Centos 7,8, Fedora 31.
| 
| I installed it in a VM and it worked pretty well, but does need
| more apps installed by default.
| 
| See https://github.com/trunkmaster/nextspace .
 
  | spijdar wrote:
  | It's worth being clear and noting that, somewhat unlike Hello,
  | which is largely an attempt at _looking_ like MacOS, with some
  | attention given to the UI and things like keyboard shortcuts to
  | make it sort of feel like MacOS, NEXTSPACE comes much closer to
  | mimicking the functionality of NeXTSTEP and, by extension,
  | MacOS (X).
  | 
  | I do wish GNUstep and some of the other projects around it had
  | more life and applications written for them. It could be a
  | lovely OS with some work. And I do mean OS -- if one built a
  | distro fully around GNUstep, it'd provide all the interfaces,
  | both programmatic and GUI-wise. And it could be lovely.
  | 
  | Not sure there's enough motivation left to get that ball
  | rolling, though...
 
  | 29athrowaway wrote:
  | When Steve Jobs created the first mac, he tried to replicate
  | the look and feel of the Xerox Alto. He did not pay much
  | attention to other aspects such as Smalltalk-80 and object
  | oriented programming.
  | 
  | NeXT is an attempt to incorporate those concepts that were
  | initially left out from the mac, thus creating an experience
  | that is more faithful to the original Xerox Alto. That's the
  | origin of Objective-C.
 
| 1-6 wrote:
| The cursive animation of 'hello' has the o written wrong. You're
| supposed to do a clockwise stop at 12 o'clock when drawing the
| 'o' and do a counter-clockwise back to 12 to meet. Apple would
| never mess that up especially when Steve Jobs was critical about
| typography on the early Macs.
 
| endperform wrote:
| This reminds me of the first iteration of OS X on my old CRT
| iMac.
 
| mmphosis wrote:
| "Resemble" is a start like Elementary on Linux and other distros
| that mimic the "look" but never the feel. TH^Hhere is a lot of
| legacy PC keyboard stuff that is annoying.
| 
| Here is what is missing:
| 
|  _Global menu bar: A concept in user interface design where a
| system-wide widget on the screen displays the menu items (also
| known as "actions" in Qt) for all applications_ I 've tried
| "actions" in Qt and is not at all the same feel.
| 
| A positional "sane" mapping of keys. I swap left ctrl and left
| alt in Linux. Alt on a PC keyboard is positioned where the
| Command Key would be. I install AutoKey to map all of the Alt
| keys to Ctrl keys in the Terminal: this is so my left Alt+c
| (Ctrl+c) will Copy (Command C) by sending ctrl+shift+c, and my
| left Ctrl+c (Alt+c) will send ctrl+c (break) to the Terminal.
| 
| As far as I can tell, textbox navigation keys, like Home and End
| "PC" behaviour, are hard-coded in X11. Command ( + Shift) + arrow
| keys navigation in a textbox does not work as I expect, and
| cannot be configurated, I would need to modify the X11 source
| code and build from scratch.
 
| peterburkimsher wrote:
| I tried to install Hello, and set up a live USB. The GUI was nice
| enough to satisfy me.
| 
| The problems started when I tried to install it. The installer
| assumes that I want to erase the entire drive.
| 
| How can an alternative OS expect to be given first-class
| ownership of the internal drive? It's so... prideful. Many Linux
| users dual-boot, as do some macOS users on x86.
| 
| After trying FreeBSD and NomadBSD, in the end I got GhostBSD
| working. The trackpad works, but sensitivity is way off.
| 
| It was a fun experiment, and I like the attempts at making a
| prettier GUI, but this won't be my daily driver.
 
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